The CAFTA Clash And The Free Trade Debate

Predictions about the social and economic impacts of the agreement range from devastating poverty to unprecedented prosperity. Yet at the core of the issue is not so much the immediate results, but rather CAFTA’s potential to pivot the public debate over how "free" trade should be. NAFTA’s Lessons Loom Large If ratified, CAFTA would advance the free market agenda that drove the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), passed in 1993 amid promises of breakthrough economic development in the US, Mexico and Canada. CAFTA would effectively eliminate most tariffs and other trade barriers that protect the agricultural and manufactured goods markets of Central America and the Dominican Republic. About 80 percent of imports from the region are already duty-free as a result of existing preferential trade policies designed to encourage market development. Supporters of CAFTA in the US have pushed the agreement as a way to give the US more "level" access to Central American markets for US products. Neena Moorjani, a spokesperson for the US Trade Representative Office, predicted that new exports through CAFTA "would benefit Americans across the board." In response to concerns about the outsourcing of US jobs, she explained that with unfettered market access, "the US can sell more products to Central America, therefore not harming American workers and in fact… supporting US jobs." Hosting Central American leaders last week at a White House event, President Bush declared, "For American farmers, businesses and workers, CAFTA would create a more level playing field" by allowing two-way market access, while the other member countries would benefit from "new investment that means good jobs and higher labor standards for their workers." Full article: http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1827 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on May 23, 2005]

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