CAFTA
From The Matrix
[edit] Central American Free Trade Agreement - CAFTA
At the end of January 2004, trade representatives from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the U.S. signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The Dominican Republic joined CAFTA in August 2004.
The U.S. Congress is not likely vote on CAFTA until after the November 2004 elections, but Robert Zoellick, the U.S. Trade Representative, has openly acknowledged the possibility of a CAFTA vote during the lame duck congress after the elections. CAFTA, in order to become official, must be approved by the National Assemblies (Congress) of each participating country.
CAFTA promises to extend the harmful impacts of NAFTA to Mexico's weaker southern neighbors, but the coming fight to stop ratification of the agreement will likely show that opponents of corporate globalization are in a strong position. (1)
Why Oppose CAFTA?
All the same issues human and labor rights organizations have with NAFTA (and FTAA) are present in CAFTA:
1. There is no guarantee that labor and environmental regulations be respected, despite side agreements.
2. Expanding corporate controlled free trade would make the Global South more dependent on the Global North and the interests of corporations.
3. CAFTA would diminish the power of Central American countries to regulate their own economies and protect their own citizens.
4. It would force the small developing Central American countries to open their markets to the US. Developing countries like El Salvador and Nicaragua have no chance of competing with the US economy.
5. CAFTA would lead to further privatization of social services, decreasing public access to basic services and giving corporations more money and control.
6. It would force competition for the lowest wages and lowest production costs, which would drive wages down in the US and keep them down throughout Central America.
7. It would allow corporations to sue governments over any law that would protect national interest by diminishing private profit (similar to NAFTA’s Chapter 11), including laws that protect consumers, communities, labor, and the environment, because these would be barriers to economic benefits for Northern countries. This eliminates the democratic rights of people and communities to determine how their government regulates relations with corporations.
8. Concentration of power in the hands of corporations with strong ties to right-wing governments would allow the conservative elite to maintain control over a country’s economy even when leftist alternatives are given governmental power by popular vote.
9. Under the guise of the war on terrorism, free trade agreements attempt to repress opposition by calling anyone who demands their human rights a terrorist for threatening a company’s profit-making ability.
10. CAFTA stipulations defending intellectual property threaten to move AIDS treatment beyond the reach of many Central Americans in need. "Generic competition has lowered HIV drug costs," says Asia Russell of the nonprofit Health GAP. "If Bush gets his way, CAFTA will lock countries into tough new patent rules that will drive the cost of life-saving drugs up and delay or obstruct generic competition." (2)
For these reasons, a ratified CAFTA would represent a clear blow to poor and working people in the Americas. The Bush Administration has stumbled through a series of trade setbacks in past months--the collapse of WTO talks in Cancún, the dilution in Miami of plans for a Free Trade Area of the Americas and the delay of bilateral trade negotiations with Australia and Morocco--leaving supporters of such deals in desperate need of forward momentum. Free trade enthusiasts might ultimately discover that CAFTA marks a turning point for critics, rather than an advance down the path of corporate globalization. (3)
Sources:
The Trouble With CAFTA, by Mark Engler, The Nation Magazine, January 16, 2004, http://www.thenation.com/
Campaign for Labor Rights Grassroots Mobilizing Department of the U.S. Anti-Sweatshop Movement, 1247 E St., SE, Washington, DC 20003, http://www.clrlabor.org/
Stop CAFTA, http://www.stopcafta.org/
Office of the United States Trade Representative, http://www.ustr.gov/
