Free Republic

SAN JOSE: Costa Rica's president Oscar Arias declared victory Sunday in his drive to join a free trade deal with the United States, announcing on television that voters had backed it in a referendum. "The people of Costa Rica have said yes to the free trade agreement, and that for me is a sacred wish," Arias said in a televised address to the nation after Costa Ricans voted in their tens of thousands on the measure. Earlier partial results showed that with 73 per cent of votes counted, just over 50 per cent of voters said yes to the agreement...

Democracy in Central America's most stable country is rocking on its foundations. On Sunday, Costa Rica will vote on a free trade agreement with the United States. The country is so divided that everyone is worried about the future, whatever the result of the referendum. Demonstrations in every corner of Costa Rica have dominated the national debate for months. With flags bearing a heart in the colours of the national flag, protestors formed the word "No". No to CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which gives Central American countries a special status in economic relations with the US. Thousands...

The Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement has been approved by all involved countries, including the United States, with the exception of Costa Rica, where opponents say they fear an influx of cheap imports and an affront to the nation's sovereignty.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democrats sought to reassure Costa Rican voters on Friday their country would not lose U.S. trade benefits if they rejected a free-trade agreement with Washington, following a Bush administration warning they could be at risk. "Congress is constitutionally responsible for regulating international commerce. As such, we reiterate our longstanding position that preference programs should not be conditioned on a country entering into a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States," two senior Democrats in the House of Representatives said. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and Rep. Sander Levin, chairman of the Ways...

On Sunday, October 7, voters in Costa Rica will decide whether to join the United States-Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). CAFTA would bring tremendous benefits to Costa Rica, as it has already to Costa Rica's Central American neighbors. This bright future is being jeopardized, however, by an alliance of protectionist anti-free traders in the U.S. Congress and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. In order to make an informed choice about joining CAFTA, voters in Costa Rica need to learn the truth behind the rhetoric.Misinformation CampaignThe massive campaign against CAFTA is captured in the lead sentence of a New...

In response to Mary Anastasia O'Grady's Oct. 1 Americas column "Democrats vs. Central America":While I strongly disagree with The Wall Street Journal editorial page's right-wing ideology, I'll give you points for persistence. Year after year, despite all of the evidence, you continue to be a cheerleader for the unfettered free-trade policies that, while benefiting multinational corporations, have caused so much economic pain for working families here in the U.S. and our trading partners abroad.Ms. O'Grady is telling the people of Costa Rica how wonderful passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement will be for them. The Journal said the...

America's only socialist senator traveled to Costa Rica last week, but it wasn't to work on strengthening ties between our two nations. Vermont's Bernie Sanders went to San José with Rep. Mike Michaud (D., Maine) to aid the local opposition to the U.S-Central American Free Trade Agreement, which has not yet been ratified by that country. The congressional visit was strategically timed. As one of seven signatories to Cafta, and the only one that hasn't made it official, Costa Rica has only until Feb. 29 to adopt ...the pact. But first it must be ratified... The Costa Rican Congress has...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Costa Ricans, some dressed as skeletons and holding banners, protested on Sunday against a U.S. trade pact they say will flood the country with cheap farm goods and cause big job losses. Chanting "No to the free-trade pact!" and "Costa Rica is not for sale!" protesters ranging from farmers to housewives filled one of San Jose's main boulevards to demonstrate against the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Costa Rica is the only country that has not ratified CAFTA -- which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua...

Addressing the Republican Leadership Conference at the Mackinac Island Grand Hotel, United States Congressman Duncan Hunter has made trade a major issue in his candidacy for President. Hunter contends that China is illegally devaluing their currency by 40 per cent. This devaluation, according to Hunter, undercuts American production in markets around the world. According to Hunter's figures, America has lost approximately 1.8 million jobs nationwide, the Michigan state losses exceed 54,000 jobs. Hunter appears to be the only Republican candidate who is not a "free trader." He has called the loss of American manufacturing jobs a national security concern. "Our...

A $2 million grant approved by the United States will go towards supporting a comprehensive program of labor rights projects in six partner countries that are party to the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-Dominican Republic) signed with the United States. To be implemented by the Organization of American States (OAS)-affiliated non-profit Trust for the Americas, jointly with the OAS Department of Social Development and Employment (DSDE), the 24-month initiative involves Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The grant agreement is part of a larger United States government commitment of some $40 million per year for...

Illinois Congressman Jerry Weller is investing a lot of money in land development in Nicaragua. And the Chicago Tribune reports that he didn't reveal just how much land he bought when he made his required congressional disclosures. The paper also says the purchase price listed on American records is dramatically different from the price listed on Nicaraguan records. The Republican congressman started buying land in 2002. Then he started looking for land he could subdivide to attract buyers looking for oceanview property. Weller's investment got a boost and American investors got some legal protections when Congress passed the Central American...

In the down-is-up world of American biofuels, success carries enormous costs. The latest evidence of these costs is an amendment tucked into the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill: As Mexican granular sugar flows into the U.S. in 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will oversee a supply-balancing program where the extra sugar can be purchased, at government-subsidized prices, by American ethanol makers. Sweet, eh? Moreover, if you think American corn growers are angered by seeing part of their fast-growing ethanol market legislatively handed to imported sugar, think again. Ethanol, after all, is the rabbit hole that swallowed logic...

China appears to be using its economic might as a means to strip Taiwan of its Latin American allies. China’s economic engagement with Latin America responds to the requirements of a booming Chinese economy that has been growing at nearly 10 percent per year for the past quarter century. The economic figures are impressive: in the past six years, Chinese imports from Latin America have grown more than six-fold, at a pace of some 60 percent a year, to an estimated $60 billion in 2006. China has become a major consumer of food, mineral, and other primary products from Latin...

One issue that's going to come up this fall that you haven't heard much about is trade. Or at least I hope it's going to come up. The Bush administration has submitted four free-trade agreements for approval by Congress — with Peru, Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. At the moment, their chances don't look very good. Democrats have taken to opposing FTAs almost unanimously. In July 2006, the House voted by only a 217-215 margin for the CAFTA, the FTA with four Central American countries, and the Dominican Republic. House Democrats voted 188-15 against, House Republicans 202-27 for. In the...

One issue that’s going to come up this fall that you haven’t heard much about is trade. Or at least I hope it’s going to come up. The Bush administration has submitted four free-trade agreements for approval by Congress — with Peru, Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. At the moment, their chances don’t look very good. Democrats have taken to opposing FTAs almost unanimously. In July 2006, the House voted by only a 217-215 margin for the CAFTA, the FTA with four Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. House Democrats voted 188-15 against, House Republicans 202-27 for. In the...

North American Union to Get Firmed Up in Secrecy at Meeting in Canada "Information is the currency of democracy." Thomas Jefferson American citizens have learned of some secretive groups in the country which are given great autonomy. Some are authorized by our government, but have little oversight, and some have not been authorized by our government, but seize authority just because they can. One example of this is the secretive CFIUS, Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States. When the plans to turn over operation of six ports to Dubai Ports World became public, (with no thanks to the...

It’s 9 a.m. and workers are rolling up the giant doors at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles. Grocers are ready for business, their stalls colorfully stocked with vegetables and fruit – green beans, squash, tomatoes, lettuces, asparagus, oranges, apples, avocados, nectarines. This open air market, and scores of groceries and supermarkets throughout Los Angeles, once offered nothing but the bounty of California, the largest agricultural state in the nation. Long the salad bowl for the nation, we became the envy of easterners who face limited selections of vegetables and fruits during winter months. It’s still true that every...

Local Truckers protest doesn’t strain Beltway as feared Natalie McGill, The Examiner Apr 24, 2007 3:00 AM (5 days ago) Current rank: # 1,923 of 5,158 WASHINGTON - The first day of a three-day truckers protest planned for interstates nationwide had little to no impact on Capital Beltway traffic Monday morning and afternoon. SaveAmericaFund.org, based out of California, asked truckers across America to rally together and create slow-rolling road blocks in protest of a change in U.S. Department of Transportation policy making it easier for Mexican-owned trucks to traverse the nation. But Maryland State Police spokesman Arthur Betts said nothing...

U.S. trade policy and the impact of globalization on America are regularly the subjects of contentious debate both on Capitol Hill and in the media, and 2007 promises more of the same. The free trade argu­ment is played out between those that fear the per­ceived negative effects of freer trade on their own narrow interests and those that embrace the eco­nomic and strategic benefits that open market poli­cies will bring to the economy as a whole. Consequently, in today's policy world, free trade leg­islation passes on the margin, where every vote is crit­ical. The loss of even a few proponents...

Most thoughtful observers of the contemporary American polity are astonished that the highly partisan fight over the future of Iraq has almost entirely obscured the larger problem of which the Iraqi theater is but one front: the truly global conflict against Islamofascist ideologues and their enablers that is best described as the War for the Free World. If the ominous nature of this wider struggle to the death -- and the potentially grave implications for our society should we fail to wage it successfully -- are being lost on too many Americans, practically none of them is paying attention to...