Costa Rica Voters (Narrowly) Approve CAFTA

Early reports suggest that Costa Rican voters have narrowly approved Costa Rica’s accession to the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Costa Rica is the only party to CAFTA that has submitted the agreement to a referendum. Such up or down votes on free trade deals rarely occur through the referendum process. Indeed, treaties and other international agreements almost never go through referendums. But I can certainly see why this agreement, which is far more important to Costa Rica than to the U.S., would be subject to a referendum. In general, though, pro-free traders should probably be grateful that more countries don’t adopt such populist decisionmaking processes.