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Article Published: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 2:21:50 PM PST

Oppose CAFTA

Darth Invader of America, Thomas Friedman, wrote glowingly recently of the economic virtues of CAFTA, the proposed agreement to link six more Central American countries to the corporate-ruled free-trade agreement called NAFTA.

Nowhere in his op-ed piece did he mention any of the sinister effects for America -- the nation, its states and communities, even school districts --that are drafted into the provisions of this treaty legislation.

In his book, "The World Is Flat" (i.e. An internationally corporate-ruled world), Friedman expounds more freely on those dangers.

President Bush is pushing hard for the adoption of CAFTA, and he secured letters of agreement from 28 governors committing their states to conform to purchasing policies, to rules that forbid preference to made-in-the-United-States products or "green" purchases; disqualifying corporate suppliers with poor human rights, labor, or environmental records; requiring contractors to have fair-wage and worker-treatment policies; or refusing contracts from corporations in countries that suppress human rights. Nine of those 28 states have now rescinded those agreements after carefully considering the consequences, but Bush presses on.

Provisions in CAFTA establish "rights" for multinational corporations that can override federal, state, and local laws and regulations, and violations of those rights can, and have under NAFTA, result in multimillion-dollar fines.

The penalties are imposed by corporate-ruled tribunals not answerable to any U.S. legislative or executive authority.

Under NAFTA, a Canadian corporation that makes a component of a gasoline additive banned in California is demanding an award of nearly a billion dollars from the state because of its "loss of business."

CAFTA's provisions, which are much broader than those in the prior free-trade treaty, would even allow the secretive tribunals to decide whether one of our laws or constitutional protections is "necessary" if it impinged on some foreign corporate business plan.

CAFTA overreaches the need for improving trade with Central American nations. The acronym seems to really stand for Corporate Attempt For Taking over America.

Our news media must publicize the true nature of this dangerous legislation, and our Congress must oppose any attempt to pass it into law.

Drexel Stephens