Thread: Larry Weiss: Kennedy's flirtation with CAFTA

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Last update: May 30, 2005 at 7:54 PM
Larry Weiss: Kennedy's flirtation with CAFTA
Larry Weiss
May 31, 2005 WEISS0531


Rep. Mark Kennedy wants to represent Minnesota as a U.S. senator. He also has flirted with voting in favor of an expansion of the NAFTA trade deal that could spell the end of one of Minnesota's key industries. He can't have it both ways.

The NAFTA expansion deal is known as CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA cost our country a million good jobs and put nearly 2 million farmers in Mexico out of business. CAFTA, which includes five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic, would multiply the bad news.

But CAFTA has a new, even worse, wrinkle. It would allow enough new sugar into the United States that it could wipe out the U.S. sugar industry. "As I see it, you have just negotiated away another industry here," Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., told the U.S. trade representative at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee last month.

"I am increasingly skeptical of claims that the latest trade agreement is another great success for U.S. trade policy. All the evidence I've seen shows that these deals are failures for the United States," Conrad said. "The trade deficit last year was $618 billion and growing, thanks in part to the North American Free Trade Agreement. If that's success, I'd hate to see failure."

Minnesota's sugar beet industry directly contributes $670 million to our state's economy. It generates $1.23 billion in additional business activity in the state. This combined $1.9 billion represents growth in real terms of 35 percent since 1992. Its contribution to Minnesota's economy is on par with our taconite industry. Our sugar industry provides $42 million in tax revenues in the state. It is one of the brightest spots in our rural economy.

Yet Mark Kennedy apparently wants to give it away. He has waffled between strong statements of support for CAFTA and claims that he is still thinking about it. He strongly advocated expanding NAFTA to the entire Western Hemisphere in his 2004 election campaign.

In April, Kennedy's office co-hosted a Minneapolis forum about the supposed potential for growth from CAFTA. But the fact is that there is very little growth to be had there. To put it in perspective, the combined annual GDP of the six CAFTA countries is $85 billion. The annual GDP of New Haven, Conn., is $80 billion. The U.S. economy is not going to grow in any noticeable way from marginal openings in a market that size.

NAFTA cost us a million manufacturing jobs. It opened taxpayers up to more than $15 billion in extrajudicial lawsuits by foreign investors under rules giving them rights that American investors do not have under our laws. It boosted our annual trade deficit by $100 billion, adding significantly to what Alan Greenspan has called an "unsustainable" drag on the U.S. economy.

Public opinion polls consistently show that Americans feel NAFTA was a failure, and that we oppose the NAFTA-expansion plan, CAFTA, as well.

Official bodies have also weighed in. The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the National Association of Counties oppose CAFTA. The National Conference of State Legislatures, the National League of Cities and the National Association of Towns and Townships have expressed serious concerns.

In the face of all of this, Kennedy has some explaining to do about why he supports doing further harm to our country by expanding NAFTA. He needs to explain why he is asking voters to make him a U.S. senator from Minnesota when he wants to vote for this CAFTA trade deal that would destroy a pearl of our state's economy, our sugar industry.

Larry Weiss, Minneapolis, is director of the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens Trade Campaign.

"The trade deficit last year was $618 billion and growing, thanks in part to the North American Free Trade Agreement. If that's success, I'd hate to see failure."

I sure wouldn't want to see failure!!

RR