Posted on 01/11/2006 11:16:53 PM PST by hedgetrimmer
The Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic is struggling to get on its feet after six Central American countries, including the Dominican Republic, failed to meet a Jan. 1 preliminary start-up date.
All CAFTA countries have ratified the agreement with the exception of Costa Rica, El Salvador being the first in December 2004 and Nicaragua the most recent in September 2005.
"All countries recognized the Jan.1 date was an ambitious goal and that they might not have completed their implementation process by that time," said Stephen Norton, spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative office.
At issue are the "technical changes" the nations must make in customs procedures and regulations regarding intellectual property rights, telecommunications and procurement.
Portman said countries will come on line under a "rolling process" when they have completed the implementation process to USTR satisfaction, including a presidential proclamation from each nation.
CAFTA-DR’s troubles have invigorated hope among opponents that the trade agreement could be derailed.
But Burke Stansbury, executive director for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, a U.S. based group opposing CAFTA-DR, said it’s unlikely the agreement will fall apart but"we are not giving up."
"From day one the Bush administration has been trying to ram CAFTA down people’s throats, with little substantive debate and despite voices of tremendous opposition," he said. "In Costa Rica they have failed, and in other countries it took repression and dirty tactics to ratify CAFTA."
Stansbury likened CAFTA-DR to an "investors’ and corporate" rights agreement for the United States and U.S. corporations.
"U.S. corporations want strict fines and penalties in place before they set up their businesses there," he said. "The USTR is demanding each nation to come up with a whole list of reforms that align with CAFTA."
That amounts to constitutional or domestic law rewrites for each country involved, said Tom Rickert, co-director of the Quioxte Center, a Maryland based group opposing CAFTA-DR.
"The problems associated with implementing CAFTA demonstrates what we’ve been saying all along: This agreement goes beyond trade in requiring dramatic changes in domestic laws that grant new rights to transnational corporations at the expense of working people," he said.
Ricker also said CAFTA was being used as a mechanism to "re-energize the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement."
The FTAA intends to bring every country in the Western Hemisphere under one free-trade umbrella -- possibly to the point of a common currency, the Amero, similar to the European Union’s Euro.
Norton supported the idea of CAFTA-DR being a forerunner to FTAA when he said," Successful CAFTA-DR implementation is critical to the broader U.S. policy goals for the Americas of strengthening democratic governance, expanding economic opportunity, and investing in people."
Stansbury said, too, CAFTA-DR goes beyond other free-trade agreements in that it prohibits countries from discriminating against "trade in-services" or "basic social services being managed by a foreign country."
"It opens the way for foreign industry to manage services that have been traditionally managed by the state," he said.
When asked if that stipulation means a Central American national could become a local fire chief or police chief in the United States, Stansbury said, "It is possible."
CAFTA-DR funding
United States
The United States’ Trade Capacity Building policy gives financial aid to countries to align them with free trade agreements. USAID is another agency used to appropriate U.S. funds to bolster a nation's trade capabilities.
A partial listing of money being funneled into CAFTA countries include:
* Honduras -- $215 million
* Nicaragua -- $175 million
* Potential for similar amounts in 2006 for other CAFTA countries is provided by the Millennium Challenge Corporation appropriating U.S. funds -- Condoleeza Rice, chairman
* President’s FY2006 Budget Request: approximately $200 million for the region in development and capacity-building.
Inter American Development Bank (United States is a member) in a 2005-2009 loan pipeline for trade capacity building:
* Costa Rica -- $417 million
* El Salvador -- $375 million
* Dominican Republic -- $285 million
* Guatemala -- $281 million
* Honduras -- $142 million
* Nicaragua -- $103 million
World Bank (United States is a member)
* Over $1.14 billion in already approved loans in support of CAFTA’s reform agenda. Loans include financing for roads, ports, electricity, customs modernization, reductions in costs of doing business, rural development, strengthening governance and institutions.
Source: Office of the United States Trade Representative
CAFTA PING
But Burke Stansbury, executive director for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, a U.S. based group opposing CAFTA-DR
CISPES has been working since 1980 in solidarity with the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) and the Salvadoran social justice movement to promote an alternative to the oppressive US-backed policies of the Salvadoran right.
Formed in 1980 with Cuban backing, the guerrilla umbrella organization (FMLN) is composed of five leftist groups: Central American Workers' Revolutionary Party (PRTC), People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), Farabundo Marti Popular Liberation Forces (FPL), Armed Forces of National Resistance (FARN), and the Communist Party of El Salvador's Armed Forces of Liberation (FAL).
Allow me to be the first to congratulate you on taking the same side as these openly Communist organizations. Bravo!!
Free trade-yes!
Free trade agreements-no!
"Ameros" for everyone in the "new America". I can't wait.
| We are now one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations in the world. We're a major source of Latin music, journalism and culture. Just go to Miami, or San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago or West New York, New Jersey ... and close your eyes and listen. You could just as easily be in Santo Domingo or Santiago, or San Miguel de Allende. For years our nation has debated this change -- some have praised it and others have resented it. By nominating me, my party has made a choice to welcome the new America. George Bush from a campaign speech in Miami, August 2000. |
Interesting, Costa Rica is the most peaceful, least corrupt country in the area, while El Salvador has history of oligarchical opression and brutal assasinations.
" Like building and managing our highway system, as in the trans texas corridor?"
Or the "Super-Slab" here in Colorado?
Not. A. Chance.
Not. A. Chance.
I did not write the article.
More proof, as if we needed it, that the far right wacko's are becoming similar to the wacko's on the left.
Yep... STEAL our money from OUR families and give it to some turd world a-hole.... so GOVERNMENT and BUSINESS can have 'free trade'!
The only was to 'equalize' the world is to PULL UP the lower economic class by DRAGGING DOWN the upper economic class.
People with brain cells recognize it as SOCIALISM!
No, you posted it and you agree with it. It's much too long and complicated for you to have written it.
Here's a hint for you, if someone in an article agrees with you but works for something that sounds like this, "Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador", you might want to think twice about posting the article. Of course that's assuming you can think twice. Or even once.
You should read the article again. The word 'equalize' is nowhere to be found.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.