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CAFTA is facing opposition in House

By James W. Brosnan
Scripps Howard News Service
June 30, 2005

WASHINGTON - Both New Mexico senators plan to vote for a Central American trade deal that the Senate is expected to approve today. (TRAITORS)

But the CAFTA legislation still faces a major hurdle in the House, where many Republicans from textile-manufacturing and sugar-producing states oppose the deal.

Under the treaty, tariffs and other trade barriers to U.S. exports would gradually be reduced in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republican, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The few U.S. import restrictions, mainly on sugar, would be eliminated.

Albuquerque Republican Pete Domenici said shipments from New Mexico to CAFTA countries already total more than $200 million a year, mostly electronic components and semi-conductors, and that the treaty "will provide even greater opportunities for New Mexico's exporters."

Domenici's support had been expected, but Silver City Democrat Jeff Bingaman had initially opposed CAFTA when it came up in the Senate Finance Committee two weeks ago.

Bingaman changed his mind after negotiating with the Bush administration to gain their commitment to spend $40 million a year for the next three years to help enforce labor and environmental standards in the CAFTA countries.

Bingaman said CAFTA has enough support in the Senate "to pass without my vote," but "we now have an unprecedented commitment to monitor worker protections."

Intel, New Mexico's largest private employer with 5,200 employees at two chip-making plants in Rio Rancho, praised Bingaman. The company says 70 percent of its sales are from other countries.

"Access to growing markets around the world is critically important to the future success of Intel in New Mexico, the state's economy and our nation's economic leadership as a whole," said Melika Carroll, Intel's director of trade policy.

But Bingaman's decision was a bitter loss for the AFL-CIO, which had lobbied him to oppose a treaty that labor asserts will mean the loss of more U.S. jobs.

"It was a mistake," Bob Baugh, executive director of the group's Industrial Union Council, said of Bingaman's support for the treaty.

Baugh said the group had worked "to get Senator Bingaman to understand that throwing money at this by the administration doesn't resolve the problem."

"You've got to have rights and standards (in the CAFTA countries)," he said.

Bingaman had been negotiating for weeks with U.S. Trade Rep. Rob Portman over the labor standards. In a letter to Bingaman, Portman committed to supporting $40 million a year for each of the next three years to improve labor and environmental law enforcement in the CAFTA countries.

He agreed to Bingaman's suggestion to devote $3 million to the International Labor Organization, an independent arm of the United Nations, to monitor labor enforcement and issue a public report every six months.

Portman also told Bingaman in the letter that the administration would commit $150 million for rural development to help farmers in the CAFTA countries affected by the trade deal. That was to address Bingaman's concern that CAFTA could spur more illegal immigration to the United States.