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Published on 5/31/2005

Letters To The Editor:
The Bush Administration is trying to push the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). through Congress. It is the first step toward a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas or FTAA. This legislation must be stopped.

CAFTA supporters, mainly large business owners, politicians and World Bank economists, say that it will benefit the U.S. and the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

The truth is, only business owners and politicians will profit from access to cheap labor and raw materials. They argue that CAFTA will provide investment opportunities and jobs to the region to reduce poverty, but history has proven otherwise.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) offered the same promises in 1994. However, since NAFTA, Mexico has lost more than a million jobs and economic inequality has increased. Furthermore, the agreement provides protections for U.S. corporations, and allows them to sue the member countries for impairing business.

If the people vote for an increase in the minimum wage, environmental protections or regulation of resources, a corporation could sue to eliminate the laws, handing the country's sovereignty and democracy to the corporations.

Environmental costs also will be enormous. Foreign companies will be able to go into these regions, extract raw materials and leave behind a wasteland for the people who rely on those resources for survival.

NAFTA cost the United States 3 million jobs and CAFTA could cost us more. For the wealthy and powerful, the large corporations and politicians in both regions this is a win-win deal. But for the rest of us, the ordinary people, it is clearly a lose-lose deal. Contact your senators and representatives and urge them to stop CAFTA.

Jeremy Trombley
Canterbury