US To Guatemala: Change Laws
Guatemala must modify at least 10 existing laws as a condition demanded by the US to apply the free trade treaty, a condition many sectors consider will be harmful to national interests.

The Guatemalan Economy Ministry´s reform package to Congress demands, exactly as the US officials requested, changes in legislation concerning, among others, intellectual property rights, the penal code, cross-border trade, financial services, telecommunications and the environment.

Such changes, such as coming down hard on pirated films and music to protect US industry, opening local telecommunication to US telephone services, and eventual ratification of three treaties of patent protection which will open the way to US pharmaceuticals to the detriment of genetic medicines used in poorer countries.

Participants in the Latin American Pharmaceutical Industry Association, held last weekend, agreed that CAFTA favors transnationals and damages the poor.

Several Guatemalan social and grassroots sectors have appealed to the Constitutional Court over CAFTA; as attorney Alfonso Bauer Paiz said, "for one State to oblige another to change its laws is prima facie unconstitutional."