Thread: CAFTA THE LEGACY OF FREE TRADE BUSH PUSHES HIS PRO-CORPORATE

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/JulAug2005/rasmus0705.html





by Jack Rasmus



This past April debate began in Congress on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). CAFTA represents the Bush administration’s effort to resurrect its stalled plans for a “free trade� zone encompassing the entire Western hemisphere, called the Free Trade Agreement for the Americas (FTAA). FTAA is the Bush-Corporate plan to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), passed in 1994, that established a free trade zone between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. NAFTA has already cost U.S. workers the loss of more than a million jobs.

CAFTA is thus the strategic nexus, the transition between NAFTA and Bush’s future plans for a Western hemisphere-wide version of NAFTA involving 34 nations, a FTAA. But passage of CAFTA is not guaranteed. Not because of massive public opposition to the further loss of U.S. jobs to corporate-defined trade that would result should CAFTA and FTAA pass. But because of splits within the U.S. corporate elite over the proper pace and focus of free trade.

U.S. agribusiness is uneasy about the CAFTA deal, especially the politically powerful sugar industry. Textiles, apparel, and other U.S. light manufacturing industries are also opposed. With average factory wages of 90 cents an hour in the CAFTA region, CAFTA will almost certainly result in significant losses due to imports for these U.S. corporations, which are already being hammered by even lower cost imports from China producing similar factory goods for 64 cents an hour. From their perspective, they don’t need another “China on their doorstep� to compete with.

Aligned against this group are corporations strongly pushing for further expansion of “free trade� in the Western hemisphere. This group constitutes a long list of “who’s who� among U.S. multinational corporations. With only $33 billion in U.S. annual trade with Central America today, these corporate forces dominating U.S. trade policy for the past two decades are not concerned about exports vs. imports. The value of current U.S. trade with the small city-state of Singapore, for example, exceeds U.S. trade with all the CAFTA nations. U.S. multinationals’ interest in the CAFTA deal is not about trading products with Central America, it is about opening U.S. corporate foreign direct investment into that region and then extending it beyond, to all of Latin America. For them CAFTA is not really about trade, but about exporting their factories (and U.S. jobs) to the region to take advantage of lower labor costs, looser environmental regulations, and lower taxes in particular. As others have noted, CAFTA is not a trade agreement, but a U.S. multinational corporation “outsourcing� agreement.

Lined up on behalf of this latter corporate faction are the big guns of the corporate lobbying worldâ€â€

JP :

Thanks for information on CAFTA.

The CAFTA bill may not come up for debate this week or next week. In a one-minute speech from the House floor, Rep. Sherrod Brown from Ohio suggested that it might not come up until the end of the month.


Vicente Duque

Vicente,
I know, that just gives me more time to work on the rest of the representatives. We know that Bush is wheeling and dealing for votes and I will convince them that they will be out of a job come next election if they do vote for it.

Sherrod Brown runs for the Senate of for Governor of Ohio ???






JP :


http://www.house.gov/sherrodbrown/cafta.htm

Representative Sherrod Brown, Democrat from Ohio is leading the fight in the House against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

This is the Representative that wants to delay the vote on CAFTA. And he spoke at the House on Monday July 11.

He says in this web page "Time to Renegotiate CAFTA".


Sherrod Brown for Senat Blog :

http://brown2006.blogspot.com/2005/04/b ... cafta.html


http://brown2006.blogspot.com/2005_01_0 ... chive.html


It is not clear for me if Sherrod Brown runs for the Senate of for Governor of Ohio.

But he is opposing CAFTA and spoke to delay it on Monday 11 of July.


Vicente Duque

The American press gives confirmation of MY SCOOP
I broke the news of the Travels of Eight Ways and Means Members to Colombia
I was extremely scared of being wrong.
I felt like Pinoccio. But my nose did not grow.



http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/conte ... _0712.html

Shaw discusses free trade on South American trip
By Andrea Nurko

Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau

Tuesday, July 12, 2005


This was on July 5 of 2005 ( last monday )

8 members traveled including the Chairman of Ways and Means, Representative William Thomas of California.

So I was not a liar, even if I had my doubts about my sanity by giving the scoop.

I was surprised of this trip, when the Political Temperature at Washington is RED HOT.

More information about the 8 American Representatives and their talks in South America in my site :

http://fashyon.com


Vicente Duque