Ottón Solís, founder of Costa Rica’s Citizens’ Action Party: “Costa Rica already has free trade agreements with the current four member countries, and apart from Mexico, trade is meaningless and has hardly increased. The interest shown by the new government is, in part, the result of a late inertia from the time when free trade agreements were fashionable and a way to score points before the Washington establishment. But not even that potential reward is on the table given protectionist trends not only in Washington but in other Western capitals. Besides, the U.S. government had a lot of interest in the alliance when the right governed all the member countries, and it served as a geopolitical counterweight to the strong Atlantic presence of left-wing regimes akin to Venezuela’s Chávez. This is no longer true, which further weakens any efforts to impress positively on the United States by joining the alliance. However, the announcement…”