Costa Ricans will choose a new president April 1, and the decision will have important implications for trade. Presidential candidate Carlos Alvarado of the ruling center-left Citizen's Action Party (PAC) opposes joining South American free trade bloc the Pacific Alliance, while Fabricio Alvarado of the conservative National Renewal Party (PRN) supports joining it. The disagreement boils down the impact joining would have on a key domestic constituency: farmers. Costa Rica first expressed interest in joining the Pacific Alliance in 2014. But under President Luis Guillermo Solis, the Costa Rican government pumped the brakes on the accession process, partly because of growing fears that joining the alliance would hurt Costa Rica's agricultural sector by reducing tariffs on imports. For this reason, any PAC support for joining the Pacific Alliance would be risky.