Final rounds of negotiations on the Central America Free Trade Area (CAFTA) are scheduled for Dec. 8-12 in Washington D.C. It is likely the treaty will be signed at this meeting.
CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreements, is a proposed commercial pact between the United States and five countries in Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica.
CAFTA is modeled after the now-infamous North American Free Trade Agreement. The same negative effects caused by NAFTA--such as the devastating impact on working people in the United States, Canada, and Mexico--are expected to occur to many people living in countries participating in CAFTA if a CAFTA agreement is reached.
The Bush administration has been moving quickly and quietly for the past 10 months to "negotiate" a "free" trade agreement with five nations of Central America in order to regain momentum toward the hemisphere wide FTAA. The Central American Free Trade Area (CAFTA) is to be completed during the final round of negotiations in Washington, D.C. the week of December 8-12, 2003.
This is the same faux-free trade agreement as NAFTA.
CAFTA would lead to further privatization of social services, decreasing public access to basic services and giving corporations more money and control.
It would allow corporations to sue governments over any law that would protect national interest by diminishing private profit, 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. [If you think this is hype, look into the $970 million lawsuit under NAFTA against the United States by Canadian corporation Methanex. Why did they sue? Because California decided to ban MTBE, the gasoline additive which has been poisoning ground water, and Methanex is a big supplier.]
Under NAFTA, the United States has lost jobs and poverty has increased in Mexico. Small scale Mexican farmers have been driven into penury.
The coalition against CAFTA (see partial list below) is calling for local actions during the week of December 8-12, to express opposition to this agreement. CAFTA may go to a vote in Congress this spring, so the office of your member of Congress is a good target for a local action.
Sponsored by the Stop CAFTA Coalition: Quixote Center, NISGUA, CISPES, Share Foundation, US El Salvador Sister Cities, Witness for Peace, Nicaragua Network, Campaign for Labor Rights, Citizen Trade Campaign, and more.
http://www.stopcafta.org
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/12/01/6752761
http://www.cispes.org/english/Campaign_Against_CAFTA_FTAA/
Even if you're for free trade, you should be against NAFTA and it's expansion into Central America under CAFTA. Troubling provisions extend corporate power at the expense of Democracy.
Strictly speaking, they aren't free trade agreements. For example, under NAFTA, the United States sells subsidized corn in Mexico at prices below the cost of production, putting Mexican farmers out of business, but we restrict the importation of Mexican sugar to 1/3 of what they would like to sell us, again keeping farmers in penury. NAFTA has clearly caused the exportation of US jobs to the south, but Mexicans are forced to work in Maquiladoras.