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### Viewing cable 08PANAMA329, NEW TRADE MINISTER FOCUSED ON TPA AND CONTINUITY

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
08PANAMA329 | 2008-04-25 16:27 | 2011-05-29 00:00 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Panama

`

    VZCZCXYZ0027
    RR RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHZP #0329/01 1161627
    ZNR UUUUU ZZH
    R 251627Z APR 08
    FM AMEMBASSY PANAMA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1979
    INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
    RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 2680
    RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
    RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
    RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
    RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
    RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
    RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
    RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

` `

    NCLAS PANAMA 000329

    SIPDIS

    SENSITIVE
    SIPDIS

    STATE FOR WHA/CEN - TELLO
    ALSO FOR WHA/EPSC - SHAPIRO AND SALAZAR
    STATE PASS TO USTR - D. OLIVER
    USDOC - M. GAISFORD
    TREASURY - S. GRAY

    E.O. 12958: N/A
    TAGS: ETRD ECON ENRG EWWT PGOV PM
    SUBJECT: NEW TRADE MINISTER FOCUSED ON TPA AND CONTINUITY

    REF: PANAMA 0233

    This message is Sensitive but Unclassified.  Please Handle
    Accordingly.

    ¶1.  (SBU) Summary: Minister of Commerce & Industry Carmen
    Gisela Vergara is focused on securing U.S. ratification of
    the U.S. Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).  She was
    confident that Pedro Miguel Gonzalez (PMG) will exit as
    Panama's National Assembly President in September and expects
    the GOP would implement necessary changes on labor matters
    only after the U.S. ratifies the TPA.  Vergara has also
    reached out to major prospective U.S. investors, including
    Occidental Petroleum and Ports America, to reassure them of
    her intent to continue with the trade and investment policies
    pursued by ex-Minister Alejandro Ferrer.  Panamanian business
    leaders and U.S. investors were pleased with Torrijos' choice
    of Vergara.  End summary.

    Vergara: GOP to Fix Labor Issues post-TPA Ratification
    --------------------------------------------- ---------

    ¶2.  (SBU) Newly-minted Minister of Commerce & Industry Carmen
    Gisela Vergara told Ambassador on April 18 that she was
    focused on continuing with the trade and investment agenda
    that the GOP had pursued under ex-Minister Alejandro Ferrer.
    She said her top priority is to secure U.S. ratification of
    the Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).  Acknowledging that
    Panama must still address lingering USG concerns on labor
    issues, she said the GOP had drafted the executive decrees
    necessary to do so but would carry them out as part of the
    implementation process once the U.S. ratifies the TPA.
    Vergara maintained that doing so absent U.S. ratification
    could otherwise "detonate" problems with business and labor
    groups.  She noted that, ironically, some of the groups that
    had previously opposed the TPA had come around on trade and
    are now clamoring for the GOP to push harder for its
    ratification by the U.S.

    ¶3.  (SBU) Vergara said that the GOP and Panamanian business
    leaders were anxious to "get the ball rolling again" on
    Panama's TPA, noting that the Panama Chamber of Commerce
    might organize a September 2008 event in Washington to get
    Panama back on Washington's radar.  However, Vergara was
    quick to recognize the obstacles posed by the presence of
    Pedro Miguel Gonzalez (PMG) as Panama's National Assembly
    President and the current imbroglio in Washington over the
    Colombia deal.  She said she was "99.999 percent sure" that
    PMG would be replaced as Assembly President come September.
    She believed that PMG had already decided against seeking a
    second year at the Assembly's helm owing to his need to focus
    on winning re-election from his district in the interior.
    She expected a long line of would-be PMG replacements would
    emerge in July-August, as the upcoming legislative year could
    be their "last chance" to win the title of Assembly
    President.

    Vergara Promises Continuity for U.S. Investors
    --------------------------------------------- -

    ¶4.  (SBU) Vergara visited Los Angeles, CA in early April to
    reassure key prospective U.S. investors of her commitment to
    continuing Ferrer's policies.  She told Occidental Petroleum
    executives that their proposed $8 billion refinery in western
    Panama remained a "top priority" for the GOP.  She said Oxy
    and its partner, Qatar Petroleum (QP), will visit Panama in
    mid-May to begin negotiating the text of a "contract law" the
    GOP would put forward once Oxy and QP complete their costing
    studies (likely in August) and decide to proceed.  Oxy execs
    told Econ Chief on April 17 that they were pleased with
    Vergara's presence as Minister and the GOP's handling thus
    far of the project.

    ¶5.  (SBU) President Torrijos also tasked Vergara with leading
    the GOP's direct negotiations for a $400-500 million
    "megaport" with a Ports America/Cosco joint venture.  (The
    two firms were the last two remaining in the GOP's earlier
    public bidding process for a major container terminal to be
    developed near the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.  As
    the two opted to pursue the project through a joint venture,
    the GOP abandoned the licitation and decided in early April
    to negotiate a direct deal with them.)  Ports America
    executives told Econ Chief on April 17 that they, too, were
    pleased with their meeting in Los Angeles with Vergara.  They
    believed the continuity she offers avoided what otherwise
    might have been a six-month delay following Ferrer's
    departure.

    Comment:
    --------

    ¶6. (SBU) Given the other prospects for Ferrer's replacement
    (reftel), Panamanian business leaders and foreign investors
    were gratified, if not relieved, at Torrijos' choice of
    Vergara.  As Vice Minister, she enjoyed a reputation as
    honest and hard-working.  A friend of Ferrer's since
    childhood (she considered him "like a big brother"), Vergara
    appears highly committed to seeing his trade and investment
    agenda through to the end of the Torrijos Administration's
    term (Sept. 2009).  Her confidence about PMG's possible exit
    as Assembly President echoes similar statements we have heard
    in recent weeks from other top GOP officials, but does not
    appear based on any first-hand discussions with PMG.  End
    comment.

    (SBU) Biography - Carmen Gisela Vergara
    ---------------------------------------

    Carmen Gisela Vergara is a lawyer who graduated from the
    University of Panama with a degree in Law and Political
    Science.  She earned a Masters in Economic Law at the
    Universidad del Externado in Bogota, Colombia; a Masters in
    Private Law from the University of Panama; and a Certificate
    in International Commercial Negotiations from the University
    of Santiago, Chile.  She also studied Foreign Investment
    Promotion at the World Bank.  Vergara has presented numerous
    advanced training courses and seminars on foreign investment
    promotion, the promotion of exports, foreign trade,
    entrepreneurship, business plan development, leadership,
    motivation, and team-building.

    Vergara has worked in both the public and private sectors in
    different capacities, such as: Judge Executor, Executive
    Sub-Director of the National Commission for Investment
    Promotion "Pro Panama," National Director for Promotion of
    Production and Investment of the Vice Ministry of Foreign
    Trade, and Manager of the Business Technology Accelerator at
    the City of Knowledge's "International Tecnopark."  She
    served for five years as Panama's Alternate Representative
    before the OAS' Inter-American Commission on Women and was a
    member of the OAS' Non-Permanent Specialized Committees.
    Vergara is an arbitrator at Panama's Center for Conciliation
    and Arbitration, a member of the National Bar Association,
    and the National Union of Lawyers.  She also served as
    Assistant Professor for International Trade Negotiations in
    the Global MBA programs of the Tecnologico de Monterrey and
    the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

    Vergara is a single mother of an adolescent daughter.  She
    spent a portion of her high school years as an exchange
    student in Kentucky and speaks English fluently.  Although
    she is not flashy, Vergara is highly regarded by Panamanian
    business leaders as an honest, hardworking professional.  In
    late 2007, the Panama Chamber of Commerce approached her to
    run a new think tank, but she declined, apparently in
    anticipation of her possible rise to succeed Alejandro Ferrer.
    EATON

`