A group of congressmen from the United States promotes greater interaction with Latin America based on commercial approaches and to do so they set their sights directly on Costa Rica.
The bloc is headed by senators Bill Cassidy and Michael Bennet, who presented their ideas in one of the panels that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) convened on the occasion of the summit of the Alliance for Economic Prosperity of the Americas.
Although they are politicians from different political parties, both agreed that since the Government of John F. Kennedy, in the 60s, the United States has not had a comprehensive policy towards Latin America.
From a vision of economic interaction
Now, from a vision of economic interaction, they propose including some countries in trade agreements and that is where the national idea of joining the North American Free Trade Agreement (T-MEC) gains strength.
Costa Rica would be an excellent candidate,” said Cassidy. According to his analysis, the figure would not affect the United States, Canada and Mexico, which are already members.On the contrary, they hope that it will have a more positive impact on neighboring countries.
Bennet added to this that there is a change in the destination of companies, which could be used more in the area.“We see how investments in China have been decreasing and what this means is that we could increase investments in our hemisphere,” he said.His line also involves facilitating countries’ access to current agreements, which could still be made more dynamic despite political differences.
“There is a bipartisan consensus in the United States, something that has not been seen in the time I have known. An opportunity to really boost economic integration in the region,” he concluded.
Knocking on doors in Congress
As part of the visit to Washington this Thursday, the Costa Rican delegation also had an appointment with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.This is a group of more than 30 legislators of Latin origins, who tend to have an empathetic vision of the region.
Ambassador Catalina Crespo explained that this is an essential step because in addition to the agreements with the United States Government, the Legislative Branch has the final say with the agreements.
