Thread: Commerce chief urges Hispanics to back CAFTA

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/12170303.htm

Posted on Tue, Jul. 19, 2005


Commerce chief urges Hispanics to back CAFTA

By Bob Fernandez

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez told an audience of several hundred Hispanic-Americans in Philadelphia this afternoon that they should support a free trade agreement with Central America because it would help spread democracy and protect jobs.

Speaking to the National Council of La Raza's annual conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Gutierrez said Hispanics should "embrace free trade and what free enterprise does for the world."

The Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, a free trade agreement between Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the United States, has been heavily pushed by the Bush administration.

The Senate passed the trade agreement on June 30 by a 54-45 vote. Republican leaders in the House, where CAFTA faces more opposition than in the Senate, have scheduled a vote on the agreement for next week.

Gutierrez said a free trade agreement would protect textile jobs in Central America from being outsourced to Asia. He also said the trade agreement would signal to people in Central America that the United States supports the region's transition from dictatorships to democracies.

Contact staff writer Bob Fernandez at 215-854-5897 or bob.fernandez@phillynews.com.

"spread freedom and democracy"

They kicked three Americans out of their convention because they had Border Patrol shirts on. What kind of "freedom and democracy" is Guiterriez speaking of?

Well...he's from Cuba and was raised in Mexico and worked in Mexico until middle age....so I guess the kind of "freedom and democracy" HE'S talking about is that MEXICO KIND.

NO THANKS, Carlos. GO HOME. GO BACK TO MEXICO to a land you understand. Shoooo, now!! Shooo!! Shoooo!!

I'm beginning to think for the national security of our nation that Cabinet Members need to be born American Citizens to parents of American Citizens. Otherwise, you end up with a Mexican running the Commerce Department, who doesn't understand American Freedom and Democracy, and a Chinese running the Labor Department, who doesn't understand the meaning or purpose of American Labor and Immigration Law...and together they promulgate a total economic disaster for the United States.

I mean Elaine Chao tried to pass a law that would deny automatic over-time to American Workers earning less than $22,000 a year? NOW, she doesn't understand that her JOB is to protect and promote and advance the earnings of American Workers not deflate them by stealing their over-time pay!! What is wrong with these people? Simple. They are not really American. They don't "get it". That makes them highly dangerous to our society and deadly in our government.