Costa Rican opponents of the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States have refused to accept a nationwide referendum Sunday that showed 52 percent of the voters favored the pact.
"Costa Rica's people have said¡®yes¡¯to the treaty, and this is a sacred vote," President Oscar Arias said.
But Eugenio Trejos, the leader of the pact's opposition, said he would not recognize the results and vowed to wait for a manual recount scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Costa Rica is the only one of the six Latin American signatories to the trade deal, known as CAFTA, that has yet to ratify it. The pact is in effect in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
The agreement would "expand Costa Rica's access to the U.S. market, safeguard that access under international law, attract U.S. and other investment and link Costa Rica to some of the most dynamic economies of our hemisphere," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement.
U.S. officials also suggested they may not extend trade preferences now afforded to Costa Rican products and set to expire next September.
But critics of the pact object to its requirements that Costa Rica open its telecommunications, services and agricultural sectors to greater competition. They also fear it will mean a flood of cheap U.S. farm imports.
Costa Rica exported 3.37 billion U.S. dollars in goods to the United States last year and imported goods worth 4.57 billion dollars, according to Costa Rica's trade ministry.