What is CAFTA and How to Understand It
Most people when they hear the word NAFTA, think NAFTA, CAFTA, or SHAFTA (as in shafted), but that’s because they don’t know the history. Bill Clinton has consistently received both praise and criticism for the North American Free Trade Agreement and little credit for job creation. On the contrary, much in CAFTA would make it more difficult to adjust to the quota expiration. A genuine concern for maintaining stable, long-term export markets in Central America would require supporting not CAFTA but rather a coherent development model for the region–the kind that successful developed countries used and that CAFTA’s rules on investment, the service sector, procurement, and other matters prohibit. The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) argues that CAFTA is likely to drive more poor people abroad to look for work.
Taking it a step further, CAFTA presents the opportunity for American textile producers to build facilities in Central America that can serve the entire region. The article cites ITG’s Mexico-based denim mill as the reason. The outcome of a House vote this year on CAFTA is simply too close to call. The labor movement will use its election-year clout to pressure Democrats to maintain a unified front against the deal. The way we’ll know that CAFTA is promoting economic development in Central America and the Dominican Republic (the scope of the treaty) will be when we see the same increase in immigration pressures. Counterintuitive as it might seem, economic development, especially agricultural modernization, always sets people on the move, by consolidating small farms into larger, more productive operations.
What those provisions mean is that a foreign company would be empowered under CAFTA to challenge the validity of our immigration laws. If an international tribunal rules against us, Congress would then be forced to change our immigration laws or face international trade sanctions. Brady and Flake, like scores of other congressmen who express support for CAFTA, were elected to represent the interests of U.S. Nor is promoting “economic development” in foreign lands at the expense of American prosperity among Congress’s constitutional responsibilities – a fact that voters should impress on the minds of their representatives before CAFTA is brought to a vote. We countered with not a penny, just the deep conviction that CAFTA is wrong for Costa Rica. Even so, the final tally shows a slim difference of three percentage points.
Miller went on to say, “CAFTA will be a market for ‘turnaround’ exports-products shipped south for assembly and then final sale in the U.S.- particularly textiles and semiconductors. Fabric will be sent to the region, stitched into final apparel and home furnishing products, and shipped right back to the United States. Anti-CAFTA groups, which consisted of public sector workers, unions, farmers, indigenous peoples, artists, university students and professors, and working class Costa Ricans, started organizing in community groups called “Comites Patrioticos” (CPs—Patriotic Committees). These CPs were grassroots organizations made up of neighbors who started campaigning door to door, organizing seminars, making appearances in community radio stations and leafleting in an attempt to overcome their almost complete lack of funds compared to the YES groups. If the signatory nations of CAFTA really intended the FTA to never have immigration provisions then they would have explicitly said so in the text of the treaty. Of course any such restriction in CAFTA would have violated WTO rules regarding the “movement of natural persons.”
But the CBI expires in 2008, and unless it is replaced by CAFTA the United States will have shoved its neighbors backward. The Democratic Party was historically the party of free trade, and House Democrats provided between 75 and 120 votes for previous FTA s. During a radio interview today, Vice President Cheney explained why he believes CAFTA would help solve another critical issue that faces this country, and is worthy of being our quote of the day. Vice President Cheney said, quote, “One of our big problems these days is illegal immigration”. The technical question is whether CAFTA would create a trade bloc strong enough to fend off the Chinese. Unfortunately, the answer to both is no.
Tags:Agricultural Modernization, Cispes, Export Markets, Free Trade Agreement, Immigration Laws, International Trade Sanctions, International Tribunal, Itg, Job Creation, North American Free Trade Agreement, Productive Operations, Promoting Economic Development