business & economy

Hong Kong WTO summit may affect US-RP free trade talks

At the recent World Trade Organization ministerial summit in Hong Kong it was agreed in principle that agricultural export subsidies would end by 2013 and that there would be special rules for international commerce in uniquely tropical produce. A lot of things were left vague and the ways that the European Union interprets the commitments may well render the agreements meaningless. However, as agricultural subsidies are one of the big sticking points in free trade talks between Panama and the United States that are currently stalled but set to resume on January 10, the Hong Kong framework could provide the means to get around that particular part of the impasse. Other major agricultural issues to be resolved include access to the US market for Panamanian sugar and orange juice concentrate, and there are also intellectual property and maritime issues to settle. 

COPA shares bring better price than expected

COPA Holdings, the parent company of COPA Airlines, put 15.75 million shares on the market at the New York Stock Exchange on December 15, starting at $20 a share. The sale was handled by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The share price quickly went up by $4.25, or 21.3 percent. COPA, which serves 30 destinations in 20 countries and uses Panama as its hub, is controlled by the Motta family, whose Compañia de Inversiones Aereas holds 51 percent of the shares. Until now the other 49 percent of the shares were owned by Continental Airlines, with which COPA shares ticketing services. But Continental wanted to unload some of its stake to raise money for other needs, and investors found the growing COPA Airlines an attractive place to put their money. It’s unusual because in general airline stocks are not doing well this year due to high fuel prices.

Torrijos announces 2006 road projects

President Torrijos says that next year the crumbling Trans-Isthmian Highway that connects Colon with the capital will be repaired and widened, and that there will be a road to Kuna Yala. The people of Colon have been demanding a new highway for years, and although the plan is to improve rather than replace the World War II era road that the US military built, some of the problems that now make travel between the two sides of the isthmus slow and dangerous ought to be abated. In the dry season vehicles with four wheel drive can sometimes get to the southern edge of Kuna Yala, which is a wilderness park, but there is no road that connects any of the populated communities in the comarca with the rest of the country and never has been. Roads to and through the indigenous areas are controversial because they tend to attract landless farmers from the Interior who think it’s acceptable to carve new farms out of lands collectively held by Panama’s original nations. Acceptance of a road would mark a dramatic change of attitude in Kuna political life.

Crackdown on unpaid traffic tickets coming

Starting January 1, drivers with unpaid tickets will be unable to renew their licenses. More than 110,000 people owe the government for tickets, for a total of some $38 million, and the Torrijos administration is vowing to collect.

Vendors to be kicked out of Plaza Francia area

More than a dozen artisans who have for many years sold their arts and crafts on the walkways around the Casco Viejo’s Plaza Francia have been given until January 1 to leave. The city has ordered the eviction because the area has been declared a tourist zone and there aren’t proper sanitary facilities for the vendors. The vendors have been offered the opportunity to relocate to the municipal artisans’ market in Balboa, where hardly anybody shops and they would have to pay for stalls. The move is part of an overall city offensive against street vendors.

Finning to be illegal

It might slightly increase your chances of being eaten alive while enjoying a weekend at the beach. Far more likely, it will improve the health of Panama’s marine ecosystems by affording a little protection to the predators which remove the sick fish from their schools and thus limit the spread of diseases. “It” is a proposed law to prohibit the practice of finning, the catching of sharks, removal of their fins and throwing the finless fish back into the water. The proposal, known as Law 155, is before the legislature’s Population, Environment and Development Committee. If the bill is passed before the National Assembly session ends on December 31, you will still be able to get shark fin soup at many Chinese restaurants, but if a boat is found to be transporting or unloading shark fins without the shark attached there will be fines and possible jail sentences. The proposal has the support of the Torrijos administration so is likely to pass.

Schools, clinics in remote communities to get solar power

There are still large parts of Panama that are not served by the electrical power lines. It’s that way in most of the indigenous comarcas, for example. However, some 350 public schools and 100 health clinics in the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca and on the Atlantic side of Veraguas province will get electricity in another way, starting next August. The Social Investment Fund (FIS), with a grant from the European Union, will be installing arrays of photovoltaic cells and storage batteries that will allow them to have lights for the first time. The Europeans will be footing some $10.2 million of the $12 million bill.

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