Thread: Final CAFTA run just ahead

http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=4018

Final CAFTA run just ahead


WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - Supporters of a controversial free-trade pact with Central America looked forward on Thursday to final votes in the U.S. Congress by the end of June after racking up two early victories.

"I hope we can get it out of committee this next week," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, told reporters.

That would set the stage for a possible vote on the pact in the Senate and House of Representatives before a weeklong break in early July, congressional aides said.

The U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, is the most controversial trade pact negotiated by the White House since winning trade promotion authority in 2002.

Most Democrats argue CAFTA's labor provisions are too weak for a region with a poor record on workers rights.

Many Republicans from sugar and textile districts are also wary of the pact because of opposition from their constituents.

CAFTA is backed by many business and farm groups that expect it to boost exports to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

Two congressional committees approved draft legislation for implementing CAFTA this week on mostly party-line votes.

That cleared the way for the White House to submit final legislation to Congress in coming days. Lawmakers would then have 90 days to approve or reject the pact.

A consumer group issued a report on Thursday warning lawmakers that Republican and Democratic administrations had a poor record of living up to deals they made to win approval of trade agreements.

The report by Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch said of more than 90 such promises made since 1992, the White House delivered on agreements it made less than 20 percent of the time.

Esteban Torres, a former Democratic congressman from California, told reporters he learned from personal experience to be skeptical of executive-branch promises.

Torres said he voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement after President Bill Clinton's administration promised to establish a $3 billion North American Development Bank to fund environmental cleanup of the U.S.-Mexico border region.

The bank was established but its operating rules had resulted in the dispersal of less than 1 percent of the promised cleanup funds, the Public Citizen report said.

"It was a switch-and-bait process and I am ... concerned that CAFTA is going to fall in the same situation," Torres said.

We begin our opposition to CAFTA this weekend.

W

I began mine over a year and a half ago.