Continental Law: Fiscal Plan

miércoles, 30 de noviembre de 2011

Fiscal Plan

Costa Rican trade minister cautions against fiscal plan

Foreign Trade Minister Anabel González became the latest critic of a fiscal reform plan promoted by fellow Cabinet members, saying on Friday morning that the plan is “very worrying” for foreign investment in Costa Rica. González, a former negotiator of the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement, spoke to members of a fiscal reform commission in the Legislative Assembly. Several commission members support the tax overhaul, which includes increased taxes on companies setting up in Costa Rica's free zones after 2015. González is the first member of President Laura Chinchilla’s cabinet, who designed the plan after negotiations with opposition lawmakers, to speak out against the reform package.

“For an investor, stability in a country′s legal framework is very important. It provides confidence for investments not only in the short term, but for future investment planning in the country,” González said. “A change in the current legislation could put further investment at risk, which is a very worrying prospect for the country’s economic sector.”

As Gónzalez spoke, employees of Panduit, a technology firm located in a free zone in the Central Valley town of Grecia, broke out in applause. Panduit and other foreign companies located in free zones, including microchip manufacturer Intel and HP, oppose the reform, mostly because of new taxes. Companies currently operating in free zones enjoy significant tax benefits.

González said the approval of the current version of the plan could weaken the country’s competitive advantage over other countries.

“Competition to attract foreign direct investment is very strong,” González said. “By establishing the attractiveness of our country’s offerings, we are giving companies a reason to consider other countries for investment.”

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the fiscal reform package in December.

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· Title: Costa Rican trade minister cautions against fiscal plan
· Author: Adam Williams
· Date: November 4th, 2011
· Source: http://www.ticotimes.net/Current-Edition/News-Briefs/Costa-Rican-trade-minister-cautions-against-fiscal-plan_Friday-November-04-2011

This article explains how worried some institutions are about the new fiscal plan, specifically, our trade minister Anabel Gonzales who concerns about a possible negative consequence this plan can bring. As a foreign trade minister, she should worry about keeping the foreign investors in our country and also attract more of them. This task has been easy with our system of free zones which is in distress with this fiscal plan. Well, I must say that some time ago, I thought those companies shouldn’t have all those taxes benefits that national ones don’t have, but in this moment, I really appreciate those thousands of jobs that they offer. So, they are rewarding our country economy in another way. This fiscal plan has a lot of pros and cons; for that reason, it should be analyzed once more. It is an important article to share because it talks about our national reality, and it is predicting what can happen in the future if this plan is accepted this way.

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Reflection

Participating in classes’ discussion allowed me to understand a little bit better the way other people think about certain topics. Every time a person talks, an idea is being transmitted and something new can be learned. While developing the book’s topics, and listening to other people’s ideas, I discovered new strategies that help them that can help me too, an example of this can be when we talked about how to relieve stress. So, if you decide to learn of every single word you listen, it can help you a lot.

I would like to remark two specific topics seen in class, those are punctuation and transition words. These are two tools that will always improve every written report, and in general, the way other people understand what you say. Moreover, the difference in the pronunciation of noun and verbs that are homonym words is something completely new for me. I know that I still need to practice transition words and punctuation, because those two are not very easy, but at least, at this moment I have a base; so, the decision to improve is mine.

Within my learning in this course, I could explain people what I learned about the fluency of energy, that we are all energy and the way we use it and the way we think and believe is going to attract positive or negative situations to our lives. In addition, taking time for yourself and breathing before getting angry can help you to have a happier life leaving stress aside. In that way, I can continue mentioning a lot of information I learned during the course, but the importance here is to apply it, and to share it with a person who need it in the right moment. I would not like to finish without saying that the only way to enhance yourself is identifying and correcting your own mistakes, in order to avoid them in the future.