US Blocking Costa Rican Sugar Trade To Force IP Laws

For the last couple of days news has been trickling in about how the US is trying to ram IP laws down Costa Rica's throat by blocking their access to the US sugar market. Techdirt has a good summary of the various commentaries and a related scoop in the Bahamas where the US is also applying IP pressure. "The first is in Costa Rica, which is included in the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Yet like with other free trade agreements that the US has agreed to elsewhere, this one includes draconian intellectual property law requirements. I still cannot understand why intellectual monopoly protectionism — the exact opposite of 'free trade' — gets included in free trade agreements. At least in Costa Rica, a lot of people started protesting these rules, pointing out that it would be harmful for the economy, for education and for healthcare. So the Costa Rican government has not moved forward with such laws. How has the US responded? It's blocking access to the US market of Costa Rican sugar until Costa Rica approves new copyright laws."

Comments

Re:"IP La"

[ccarson]

"I still cannot understand why intellectual monopoly protectionism — the exact opposite of 'free trade' — gets included in free trade agreements"

Dear Che Guevara,

"Free trade" doesn't mean a transaction where one party doesn't pay. Engineers work hard so that one day they can pay rent and afford to buy sugar at the grocery store. The destruction of business and the fabric of commerce doesn't work any better.

mod DowN

[Anonymous Coward]

th3 numbers. The lis7 of other

Re:Level playing field

[BitZtream]

Why these trade rules aren't being used to enforce environmental agreements and not IP ones is somewhat beyond me.

Because other than a few attention whores who will do whatever they can to get people to look at them, no one actually gives a fuck about the environment. Kind of like yourself.

Re:Never Fear!!!!

[ArsonSmith]

"USA is the hypocritical of all countries when the subject is international trade. when in benefits the US, lets all "free trade", but when it steps on a few lobbists toes, it's heavy tariffs here, restrictions there, sanctions somewhere else."

Funny thing about Democracies is you don't have a single leader and voice dictating exact policy.

Re:Never Fear!!!!

[Gothmolly]

You're not a troll, you're a douche.

Re:Never Fear!!!!

[daemonenwind]

Sometimes things do have to be said.

So let me ask you this:
If subsidies are a tool of the wealthy to oppress the poor, then why does Costa Rica force its people to buy only domestic beans?

Beans produced in Costa Rica cost more than 50% more than beans produced in Nicaragua. Considering that beans are a key staple of the Costa Rican people, who benefits?

Why must you harm both your own people and Nicaragua in this way?

This is not the only stupid, protective trade manipulation Costa Rica has. Yet they feel free to complain to the WTO (which they did join) about others - Costa Rica has 4 active complaints on file. Only 1 is against the US, and that is for textiles.

Now to the thing which must be said:
The problem with you South American-types is that your dictators treat you like mushrooms - feed you shit and keep you in the dark. And not only this, but you get all puffed-up and proud about the shit and the darkness, like it's somehow noble to be screwed over by some potbellied, squinty-eyed dictator who cloaks the crap he feeds you in bold, revolutionary speeches.

The best thing you can do is stop worrying about what the US is going to do and fix your own country. With 2 ongoing wars and a child in the White House, you could probably blow up half the US Navy and nothing would happen. So don't worry about us and fix your own shit.

Re:"IP La"

[idji]

for some stoopid (=$$$ and power) reason the Americans have decided that corn is the be-all and end-all.

• The food is full of that chemical concoction high fructose corn syrup. Instead of eating a natural food that they could trade from many (nearby) Central American countries they concoct their own with farming subsidies - keeping their neighbors in poverty and servility - and inanely socio-reengineering their own population into believing it is natural.
• Corn is feed to the cows to make beef and hamburgers instead of letting them eat grass.
• "Organic" fuel is produced in a sick attempt to make the whole thing look green/responsible - but is simply unsustainable biosphere destruction. Now what was just a food issue is now horribly entwined in energy politics.

And all of the above are simply theft and rape from nature - and the biggest sufferers are the oceans - who cares about dead zones under the waves.

Stand up you Americans and say no more to this corn-politics. Don't listen to the political energy-security spin wrapped up as patriotism and way-of-life, the big industries selling those million-dollar harvesters and homogenising small-town USA. Pay your carbon abuse, and don't just switch your glaring carbon debts to not so "invisible" nitrogen-dumping or phosphorous-dumping in your seas and waterways.