Thread: Central American farmers fear toll of free-trade pact

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5580027.html

Last update: August 27, 2005 at 12:33 PM
Central American farmers fear toll of free-trade pact
James C. McKinley Jr., New York Times
August 28, 2005 CAFTA0828


BIJAGUA, COSTA RICA -- Bolivar Elizondo barely ekes out a living on his 25-acre farm in the mountains near Bijagua, where he raises chickens, pigs, pineapples and a dozen cows. But his biggest worry these days is a free-trade agreement with the United States.

A man who must do everything by hand with a machete or knife, Elizondo depends on selling about 50 pigs a year to finance the rest of his tiny operation. He says he can never compete with the large mechanized meat producers from the United States that are expected to invade the market over the next 20 years if Costa Rica's legislature approves the accord.

"Without selling the pigs, I don't know how to survive," he said as he fed plantains to his swine. "I can't support myself. I will have to sell this. Who is going to buy it? Not another Costa Rican. It will be a multinational corporation."

The Central America Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA, was barely passed by Congress in late July after President Bush put on a masterly display of logrolling and arm-twisting. But the agreement is far from a done deal in Costa Rica. It has become a toxic political issue in Central America's richest economy as well as in several others, including countries where the pact has already passed the legislatures.

Bush argues that the deal will shore up political stability in the region and reduce a $2.3 billion deficit with the countries involved. But negotiators for the region did not have enough leverage to pry many concessions from the United States, critics and even some supporters said.

A high-ranking Costa Rican official, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of offending his U.S. counterparts, said the implicit threat was that temporary trade preferences enjoyed under old agreements would not be renewed. Central American countries had to get on board with the new pact or risk watching their exports dwindle.

U.S. trade officials say they argued that a permanent agreement was a better deal for smaller countries than the two-decade-old, one-way trade preferences that could disappear at the whim of Congress. But they did not dispute that reluctance to extend the preferences past 2008 might have spurred countries to join the new pact.

"If a country chooses not to ratify CAFTA and open its markets to U.S. goods and services, it should not automatically assume that Congress would continue to provide it preferential one-way access into the U.S. market," said Neena Moorjani, a spokeswoman for U.S. trade representative Rob Portman.

As such, the treaty has divided Costa Ricans and others in the region, with people both for and against it now warning of impending doom if they do not get their way.

If the pact is approved, small farmers like Elizondo say they will be wiped out. If it is not, Costa Rican manufacturers like Luis Gamboa, whose factory produces stoves and refrigerators, say they may move to another country.

Passionate views

Labor leaders threaten strikes and argue that the treaty will force public-sector layoffs and drive up health care costs. Flower growers say they will go out of business without it.

The accord arouses such passions that the Costa Rican president, Abel Pacheco, dismissed all the negotiators and postponed sending it to the legislature for nearly 18 months. Most political analysts say he plans to let the next president deal with the issue, which is already defining the presidential race this winter.

Alberto Trejos, a former trade minister, negotiated the deal for Costa Rica and then resigned last year in protest, saying the president lacked the stomach to face down the unions in Costa Rica. "The president and government have at this late stage of their administration lost the nerve for a big fight," he said.

Nor have Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic passed the accord yet, for similar reasons.

Even in Guatemala, where the legislature did approve the agreement, there were violent demonstrations against it. In El Salvador, one of the United States' closest allies, health care workers marched to protest the pact before it passed.

Critics across the region, mostly laborite or leftist in their views, see the pact as a one-way street, benefiting U.S. multinational corporations at the expense of Central America's small businesses and farmers.

"Where is the evidence that this is going to develop us?" said Otton Solms, an economist who is running for president in the Citizen Action Party. "This is going to create more poverty and Central America will expel more people toward the USA."

"I never imagined CAFTA was going to be so one-sided," he added. "The law of the jungle benefits the big beast. We are a very small beast."

Opponents like him point to the experience of Mexico, whose 10-year experiment in free trade with the United States has depopulated much of the countryside and sent waves of migration north of the border.

With that in mind, perhaps no Costa Rican region has more at stake than Guanacaste, where tens of thousands of small farmers like Elizondo raise beef, pigs, rice and sugar cane.

Rice farmers see the agreement as an unmitigated disaster. Even though they have 10 years before the 35 percent duty on imported rice begins to disappear, most say they will never be able to compete with rice farmers in the United States, who have better technology and receive huge subsidies.

It costs about $250 to produce a ton of rice in both countries, but the Americans sell it on the world market for much less, farmers in Costa Rica said.

"It's impossible for us to be competitive with all the subsidies that the North Americans have," said Emilio Rodriguez Pacheco, 48, who farms about 25 acres of rice. "For the rice sector, it's a tragedy."

Defenders of the pact say most of the complaints are baseless and based on a fear of change. Freer access to the North American market is the only way, they maintain, for Central American economies to grow.

The future is in downstreaming adding value locally. There needs to be emphasis put on this not enough was done along these lines in Mexico under NAFTA. A beef operation makes no sense on this scale unless the pasture is free. Population prssure in the are is making beef a bad choice. Pigs could have years on it if they produce an end product and feed using grain previusly sold in San Jose as an end product.

JP and Richard :

These are extremely interesting posts of you. This topic of Farming, Agriculture and Deterioration of the Environment is of Great Importance and a BIG HIDDEN SOCIAL COST, not only for Latin America, but also for the USA and all Americans ( think also of U. S. Children and their future )

The States of the U. S. Caribbean are Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Other Areas in California also enjoy a Semitropical Climate.

Seasons do not exist or are very mild. Winter is a very fresh and comfortable Season. Like a spring where you can wear a Light Sweater or Jacket.

As you go high in the mountains of these Latin countries or U. S. States, you find many ecoclimates, ecosystems, microsystems of Biology and Biodiversity. There are good mountains in Mexico and Central America.


As you go high in the mountains of these countries, you find many ecoclimates, ecosystems, microsystems of Biology and Biodiversity.

When Species are Killed by Deforestation and Jungle Burning everybody loses including Americans. The Touristic Potentical is diminished. And the Water stored by the land is diminished.

As you go further south towards the Equator the Biological Richness and Wealth increases ( I mean biodiversity or abundance of many species ) and you reach the Andean nations, where many towns are over the 5,000 feet ( as the place where I live at a comfortable temperature ).

Colombia, my country was one of the Richest Country in The World in the matter of Rains, Creeks, Brooks, Torrents, Cascades, Lakes, Rivers, etc ... but deforestation has diminished the lakes and water streams. However there is still a lot to save or to recover for the good of Colombians or visitors.

Those Andean Countries with such Big Mountains and Tropical Snow Peaks, and with so much water ( except perhaps Peru that is partly dry ) may lose a Big Economic Resource in Tourism and Ecosystems.

The Flora and Fauna has a Touristic Value, but it also offers a research value. For example if an insect species disappears in Africa then all human beings lose in Biological Knowledge, Chemical Posibilities, Cures for Cancer, etc ...

Who is happy because the Australian Marsupial Wolf disappeared and became extinct ??

Thanks for Posts, this is going to be extremely useful for me, because I foresse a future for me in Studying Ecological Matters. ( Closely linked to Agriculture and its abuses )..

Vicente Duque