New US ambassador makes Spain tremble

“As far as I know none of the 500 US companies established in Catalonia has plans to flee”.

After having been welcomed by Catalan president Artur Mas, the US ambassador in Spain, James Costos, stated in an interview published in La Vanguardia newspaper that “so far I have not heard of any of the 500 US companies established in Catalonia making any changes or having any plans to flee”.

This way Mr Costos contradicted what Jaime Malet, chairman of the US Trade Chamber in Spain and president of the Spanish company Telam International Business Partner, favourable to the position of the Spanish government, had previously said –in reference to Catalonia’s independence- about a massive loss of jobs and investments as many foreign companies, especially American ones, would soon flee as a result of it.

According to Mr Costos, although Jaime Malet engages with these companies his personal point of view does not represent the US government position, and it could just be that some companies that are potentially interested in coming Catalonia may have simply adopted the usual wait-and-see business strategy.



Costos insisted that US diplomats do not express opinions about Catalonia since, it being an internal affair, this is the position they must adopt, but the US administration will be following with interest the forthcoming developments.

President Mas and the US ambassador had a meeting at the Palau of Generalitat. Later on Mr Costos was received by the president of the Catalan Parliament, Núria de Gispert, who also welcomed Tanya C. Anderson, the US general consul in Barcelona.

The visit to Catalonia paid by Mr Costos shook the Spanish press. The visit was followed by headlines such as “US pays homage to Artur Mas” by digital Dialogolibre and –a bit more subtly– by main traditional papers like ABC, in which the headline for the EFE agency feature was “Mas welcomes new US ambassador amid strong debate on sovereignty”.

Mr Costos, former vice-president of the transnational communication company HBO and a renowned defender of animal rights, is also a former board member of The Human Society, one of the main American organizations seeking to protect wildlife, and publicly applauded the bullfighting ban in Catalonia, a decision that had a major impact in many sectors in the USA.

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