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| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
With 89% of the referendum votes counted and a narrow 51% of the voters' support, President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica has signed on to CAFTA, the BBC reports.
Costa Rica is the only country that held a referendum on CAFTA.
CAFTA sparked repeated protests in Costa Rica, including a two-day strike by public workers last year, according to the BBC.
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Costa Rica's approval of CAFTA can be potentially catastrophic. It will privatize Costa Rica's natural resources, telecommunications, and agricultural sector, and flood the domestic market with highly-subsidized US products -- not to mention the lack of environmental and labor standards. The text of CAFTA also allowed for genes of living organisms to be patented -- allowing multinationals and pharmaceuticals to make huge capital gains off of Costa Rica's natural resources. 
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