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Push Made for Free-Trade Plan
April 25, 2005
Winthrop Quigley

A proposed free trade agreement that faces bipartisan Senate opposition would help improve New Mexico's economy, Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said in Albuquerque on Friday.

Gutierrez called enactment of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA, important economically, symbolically and strategically to the United States and six Latin American countries covered by the pact.

"Today, New Mexico's exports into Central America are among the largest of any state," Gutierrez said in an interview at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. The secretary was in Albuquerque to present a $250,000 economic development grant to the Hispano Chamber of Commerce and a $1 million grant to Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute.

"You already have a foundation in this state," he said. "Contacts have already been made. Small businesses understand Central American countries. New Mexico has a great advantage."

Commerce Department data show New Mexico exported $234 million worth of goods, mostly semiconductors and other electronic components, in 2004 to the CAFTA region, which includes Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.