Thread: Under CAFTA, the peasants may do better than the middle clas

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=42244


Published: Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Bylined to: Arthur Shaw

Under CAFTA, the peasants may do better than the middle classes

VHeadline.com guest commentarist Arthur Shaw writes: Oxfam America ... the anti-famine organization ... cites Honduras as a case study for the likely regional result of CAFTA, the "free" trade swindle between US imperialism and Central America/Dominican Republic.

In Honduras in the '90s the issue was rice, but the economics of the Honduran rice problem applies to CAFTA agriculture as a whole.

Stephanie Weinberg, a representative of Oxfam, made the statement on behalf of her organization before the Committee of Ways & Means of the US House of Representatives which held hearings on the proposed CAFTA theft.

"In fact, the experience of the rice sector in Honduras in the 1990s offers a case study of the likely impact on small farmers in the region."

In 1991, the Honduran government cut tariffs on rice imports to make up for a shortage due to drought, and a flood of imports at harvest time equivalent to the country's annual consumption left local producers without a market. Rice prices fell by more than 28 percent in one year and, as a result, areas under rice cultivation decreased by 35 percent the following year. Over a decade, the number of rice producers dropped from 25,000 to fewer than 2,000, and the jobs generated from rice production fell from 150,000 to 11,200. As a result, rice production was reduced by 86 percent between 1991 and 2002, and the amount of foreign exchange spent on rice imports increased 20-fold (from $1 million in 1989 to $20 million in 2003). At the same time, the price of rice to consumers rose 140 percent in nominal terms, or 12% in dollar terms, over the decade."

These seem to be the steps in the economic process.

First, tariffs are cut between heavily subsidized agricultural producers of the big capitalist countries and the unsubsidized and impoverished producers of a third world country.

Second, the subsidized imports pour into the third world country, causing a temporary rise in supply and prices fall.


Third, The subsidized imports from the big capitalist countries capture of the third world market.

Fourth, the third world farmers or producers unable to compete against the subsidized imports lose their land, causing a drop in supply and a jump in price.

Fifth, the third world country blows its foreign exchange on additional subsidized imports of food sold at inflated prices, until it currency reserves are exhausted.

Sixth, the third world countries borrows money and runs up the debt to finance its growing imports.

Seventh, the third world country is unable to pay the contrived debt, so it transfers its sovereignty, under a "free" trade agreement like CAFTA, to the US imperialists.

Eighth, the US imperialists shout "Gotcha!" The US imperialists plunder the oil and other minerals, paying nothing these resources, as well as the labor, paying wages that are so low that the employed sector of the third world country is reduced virtual and actual slavery.

The US imperialists, capitalist media, and the privileged layers of the imperialistically endowed Catholic Church (especially in Venezuela) call this economic process "democracy," "freedom," "free" trade, and "free" enterprise.

The middle classes the CAFTA countries, the disgusting tail of the local capitalists and of the imperialists and pompous high priests, can't quite figure what the fuss over CAFTA and other US-sponsored "free'" deals is all about.

It's really easy to figure...

The same process or the same economics, described above, that will hit (and that has hit) the peasants and small farmers of CAFTA will also hit the middle classes of CAFTA, except the "product" of the middle classes will not be rice as in Honduras, but professional services (like design, drafting, and administrative functions) that don't require geographical immediacy to render to consumer. These services will be "subsidized," not by the imperialist state in Washington, DC, but by the slave wages of the super-exploited workers in India, where the US imperialists are rapidly building all kinds of facilities to support these outsourced operations.

This is how the imperialists, using to be sure very polite lingo, express the idea of cutting the throats of the CAFTA middle classes "The Agreement will create new market opportunities in Central America and the Dominican Republic for a range of key US services suppliers and will lock in access in sectors where their services markets are already open. The Agreement includes a market-opening services framework based in substantial part on trade-liberalizing 'negative list' approach. This means that all services sectors are subject to the Agreement's rules unless a country has negotiated a specific exemption in that sector."

Rice or professional services. Peasants or the middle classes. There's not a dime worth of difference.

Arthur Shaw
belial4444@aol.com

Eighth, the US imperialists shout "Gotcha!" The US imperialists plunder the oil and other minerals, paying nothing these resources, as well as the labor, paying wages that are so low that the employed sector of the third world country is reduced virtual and actual slavery.

"paying wages that are so low that the employed sector of the third world country is reduced to virtual and actual slavery". RIGHT ON...I call it "employed poverty". These are the Drones serving the Crones.

The US imperialists, capitalist media, and the privileged layers of the imperialistically endowed Catholic Church (especially in Venezuela) call this economic process "democracy," "freedom," "free" trade, and "free" enterprise.

US imperialists, capitalist media and the privileged layers of the imperialistically endowed Catholic Church = Globalists = Crones.

This is one of the best articles I've ever read on the affects of America's "free trade agreement" policy.

Translated: It is to create and maintain Drones to serve Crones through employed poverty....world wide.

Judy,
I knew this would get a response from you.

I hope that Vicente reads and understands this as well.

Yes JP. I was thinking the same thing. I shall PM him and make sure he sees the post.

Dear Judy and JP :



Thanks a lot for sending the Personal Message to alert me on this thread.

I read the article but I can not agree with it.

First, the people of Central America are not starving if American Cereals are sent to those countries at Inside America prices that are lower than the cost of producing rice or wheat per acre, or square mile in Central America. They are not beggars and this is not alms but Natural Trade at lower tariffs and lower custom duties.

God gave this to America :
Wonderful soils with the best organic matter, Great Immense Plains where mechanized Agriculture can be worked. Great Technology and Advanced Science ( because the U. S. took the lead in invention ). A culture or ethics of work and relation with the neighbors that has worked miracles in the organzation of Society and the Economy. The best and greatest subsidies paid by the Government to Farmers and that would be almost impossible to stop.

So a ton of wheat, barley, oats or rye is produced at the third or fourth part of the cost of the same ton produced in Iowa.

According to the classical economists Smith, Ricardo, etc ......then the best idea is to produce the foodstuffs in Iowa. And to use the land in Central America for wonderful purposes like these :

1) Producing, coffee, tea, flowers, wines, exotic fruits, vegetable fibers or oils for special industrial purposes and much needed by U. S. Industry. These are export items.

2) Using the land for recreation of Americans or other foreigners. Many Americans enjoy going to see another land, watching strange birds, insects or mammals. Sport Fishing in those lands, treaking and hiking, tasting strange or unfamiliar foods. Speaking a foreign language.

Some islands of Spain are completely invaded by respectful British People, they party there, they live there. Many pensioned citizens of Britain have decided to live in a warmer and sunnier climate, and where prices were lower than in London ( Now prices may be higher due to the great influx of the Foreigners).

Nobody has suggested or thought that Spain is going to be invaded by England or that Spain's Culture is going to disappear. The Great English Poet Robert Graves said that he felt much at home in those Spanish islands and that he did not feel the need to return to England every year.

3) The freed peasant labor can be used in crafts, arts, or can be recruited for complex Garment Production :

Complex Apparel is this : Embroidering Shirts, Ruffling and Shirring are extremely costly in labor, also Ruching and other processes made over garments. That is why I occupy my time with Apparel Makers or Garment Sales People.

4) Someone complained in this Forum that the Flower Industry of California and Colorado was ruined by Colombia. But that is not the wickedness of Colombians or the evil heart of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.

It happens that Colombia has many sunny days in a year, the temperature is stable with very few accidental days of freezing. The sky pours tons of water over every square inch of land every day. So Colombia is more sunny than California or Colorado and has 5 or 10 times more water from sky per square inch.

And the flower industry requires a lot of labor, sun and water. So it is a smart business to produce flowers and coffee in Colombia ( also labor intensive ) and perhaps other crops like tea or wines that require a lot of labor.

But Colombians are importing big amounts of U. S. Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rye at this moment. The Colombian factories import many tons of U. S. Cotton today, which is of a better quality and price that Colombian cotton.

Pines grow three times faster in Colombia that in Northen USA or Canada.


5) Free Trade is not Free because of Democracy or Liberties or Ideologies. It is free because it reduces tariffs and custom duties.

You Americans are in the World Trade Organization, so you lower tariffs to China and to many other nations that you report as not free.

You will have a trade deficit of more than 200 billions in year 2005 with China, 200 billions of dollars counting only China. Please don't blame Latin America for Exporting your jobs to those lands south of the Great River. ( Rio Grande )

You are not impoverishing us but enriching us.

In this week the Biggest Beer Factory and the Biggest Tobacco Company of Colombia were bought by Americans. They are not cruel masters that want to enslave us, but people that like and love us and that believe in our future and they are betting their American Money.

Perhaps those businesses are going to be great exporters in the future and great generators of dollars to buy your wheat and barley ( necessary for Beer ).

And I told you that the most important people of the House Ways and Means committee have been here urging us and prodding us. ( July 5 of 2005 ) to be more open to American Business.

You are not going to conquer us, enslave us, English is not going to become the official language of Colombia soon, we are not going to become Blonde Blue Eyed Angels like Shirley Temple in the next decades.

And forgive me for saying this ( Forgive me one thousand times ) :

There are Americans that fear that USA is going to be totally Hispanized with everygody speaking Spanish and having latino genes and being more chocolate. And that all Americans are going to eat Tortillas with chili at breakfast, and Mexican beans with tequila at lunch. And that Americans are going to give serenades with mariachis every night to girls in Spanish Balconies.

And that Americans are going to go to Bull Fighting on Sundays instead of going to NFL Football.

Those people would be a wonderful laughingstoke around the world. But unfortunately there is this progression :

The Soil of IGNORANCE produces the plant of FEAR, and the plant of FEAR produces fruits of HATE.

Thanks for kindness

Vicente Duque

Dear Judy and JP :


I am TOO hard on you and on ALIPAC
To relax of being tough then I give you this smart intellectual that is worried about the Fate of the US, Deficit and Trade


Discussions on the "Model Treaty" of 1776



I believe in Free Trade Agreements but I also read the Intelligent Enemies of the FTAs.

Here there is one :


The Wreck of the Free Trade Model Engenders Myths and Falsehoods

William R. Hawkins
Monday, July 11, 2005


http://www.americaneconomicalert.org/vi ... od_ID=2010

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As data gathered in the real world of international rivalry continues to show an expanding U.S. trade deficit that will likely hit $700 billion this year (up from $617 billion last year), a great wailing is heard from the Defenders of Free Trade. Their libertarian economic faith is immune to facts, either from present observation or historical experience. That’s what makes it a secular religion. Nothing better reveals its reliance on superstition and ignorance than how readily its adherents resort to falsehoods to defend its dogma.

Consider two recent columns that appeared in putative conservative forums. First, there was Lawrence Kudlow’s column in The Washington Times newspaper July 7 entitled “China Tariff Time bomb.� Kudlow attacks Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for “China-bashing trade legislation.� He alleges “this protectionist duo should be compared to the late congressmen Smoot and Hawley, as their bill echoes the catastrophic tariff legislation that set off the stock market crash and Great Depression of decades ago.�


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Another good example of this useful idiot syndrome is John O. McGinnis, a professor of international trade law at Northwestern University and a member of the U.S. advisory committee on NAFTA labor standards. On June 30, he wrote a piece on National Review Online that grossly distorted the economic views of the Founding Fathers. Entitled “The Second American Trade Revolution,� the piece offers up the “Model Treaty� written during the Articles of Confederation as proof that America’s leaders were free trade zealots. Yet, near the end of the piece, McGinnis has to admit, “Despite the best efforts of Adams and Jefferson, however, the Model Treaty did not bear much fruit. America was then a weak nation and other nations were not confident that it would amount to much.� Indeed, the Confederation itself proved to be a failure, which is why we now have the much stronger government established by the Constitution.

The principle failing of the Confederation was in the conduct of foreign policy, and particularly trade policy. As Secretary for Foreign Affairs in 1786, future Federalist Papers author John Jay argued that “to be respectable abroad, it is necessary to be so at home: and that will not be the case until our public faith requires more strength.� The Constitution gave Congress power over foreign trade and interstate commerce in order to create a unified trade bloc of the States that could promote national economic development and expand commerce. But this was to be done by hard work, not by a simple trust in abstract theory.

McGinnis mentions Adams and Jefferson, but not how their views evolved. As minister to Great Britain, Adams made no progress pushing liberal trade, leading him to write to Jefferson, “We must adopt reciprocal prohibitions, exclusions, monopolies and imposts� to “preserve ourselves.� Jefferson urged the same course of action as Secretary of State under President George Washington.


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This is an extremely long and well documented paper.

I am sure that you will relish this Smart Economist that adheres to your theories about the Evil of CAFTA.

Read it carefully friends, tell me your ideas, and teach me some American History.

By the way. I know that you are not Racists, Supremacists or Madmen. Otherwise you would not be conversing with me.

I like you and I benefit a lot from your ideas, even if you are too radical. And you make me suffer of something that Thomas Jefferson complained in Europe.

But I won't tell you what Thomas Jefferson wrote back home, complaining of Europeans.

Vicente Duque

Hi Vicente!! The American People are not radical, Vicente!! We control our country and decide what is best for our people. Our government is not executing our wishes and this is a big problem. If CAFTA were a good thing for the United States, we would support it. We oppose it because it is not good for the United States. This does not mean that we do not want to conduct trade with other nations. We have always conducted trade with other nations, from the beginning of our nation and do so gladly when it does not hurt our nation.

Vicente, I am so glad you brought to our attention the purchase by America of the two Colombian companies. See, Vicente? There is much trade between our nations. See, Vicente? Our major corporations are already free to invest in your country. That is what I have been saying. You already ship many flowers and other products to the United States. We do not need "free trade agreements" to conduct trade. We are already doing much trade. You sell us exotic items. We sell you basics. Our investors are free to purchase anything from anyone willing to make a deal with them. I'm happy to know that these two corporations are proving to be good employers for your citizens at the beer factory and the other one.

So, what is the problem that needs to be fixed with a "CAFTA" or an "FTAA"? I see no problem that needs to be fixed. It appears to me that everything presently is the way it should remain. If your country wants to reduce its tariffs, then we can ship you even more products at a lower price. Our prices includes the tariffs.

It seems to be from your post that Colombia is doing very well. If you want to solicit technology or investment from the United States, I believe you are "free" to do that now.

Please correct me if I'm missing something.

Good to hear from you again!!

Please tell us more about Colombia.

Also, Vicente...CAFTA does not apply to Colombia. CAFTA applies to the Central American countries. Their situation is much different than Colombia, isn't it? There is much illegal immigration from these countries now and they are causing us much problems already. CAFTA would increase that problem.

We need to be clear that we are not confusing your nation with the Central American countries affected by CAFTA!!

Colombia is South American and would be part of the FTAA.

Right?

We are opposed to both, but for now, CAFTA does not apply to Colombia, does it?

Thanks Vicente!!

Judy :

Thanks for your post.


I don't understand how a Trade Agreement opens the gates for undesirable people. Perhaps some temporary visas may be issued for Businessmen or Salesmen, but they are very few and can be controled with a computer.

I do not think that the CAFTA says that anybody can enter.

And thanks for your kind words in relation to my country. I believe that countries can resurrect from the ashes and show strength after debacles, catastrophes and apocalypses. Japan and Germany did that.

That is called RESILIENCE. I know that that word was invented in Physics and later was used for Psychology and Sociology.


And I hope that you find the time to read the article that I gave you on the post before, an article on how Thomas Jefferson had to change some ideas about trade because of the pressing needs of his new nation.

CAFTA does not apply to Colombia. There was talk about a New Trade Agreement with Colombia but I think that the Colombian Government has things frozen because of the strong opposition to CAFTA inside the USA and because the American Government does not wat to acknowledge and enforce certain trademarks that have the name COLOMBIA and other intellectual or property rights.

So this seems very uneven because this treaty would be about property rights and copyrights and all American rights are strictly assured.

If no Colombian Businessman or Salesman can enter the USA to sell products or to establish a branch of a business then I would advise the Colombian Government not to sign up for FTA with USA. And to look elsewhere.

Because the U. S. is not the only possibility for dancing, there are many other partners in the party.

Thanks again.

Vicente Duque