Free Republic

A cornered economy Stagnant growth, higher costs, rising inflation, double-digit unemployment, reduced incomes, the threat of salary cuts and layoffs in the commonwealth government, and loss of confidence are backing Puerto Rico´s economy into a tight corner. Hold on to your wallets and pocketbooks because the cost of living and doing business in Puerto Rico is literally going through the roof and threatens to only get worse. The price of gasoline, water, electricity, food, medicine, tolls, and everything is on the rise. Everything that is, except for income. In a 2005 study of cities prepared by Mercer Human Resource Consulting,...

Arizona’s liberal governor, Janet Napolitano, declined an invitation for an interview on Sean Hannity’s radio program today. That led Hannity to remark that Napolitano “knows her days will be numbered if she doesn’t do something about the border invasion.” Later in today’s program, GOP governor candidate Don Goldwater did appear on the airwaves with Hannity. He said Napolitano obviously got the idea to declare four southern counties a disaster area from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who had just done the same thing next door. If Napolitano is wise, Goldwater said, she will “wake up from her wonderland” and protect...

A controversial plan to embed radio frequency identification chips in license plates in the United Kingdom also may be coming to the United States, experts told UPI's Wireless World. The so-called e-Plate, developed by the British firm Hills Numberplates, is a license plate that also transmits a vehicle's unique identification via encryption that can be read by a small detector, whose output can be used locally or communicated to a distant host. "RFID is all the rage these days," said Bradley Gross, chairman of Becker & Poliakoff, a law firm in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., "but my fear is that this...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. It began in 1994. All the attention was focused on the new WTO, emerging from the Uruguay round of GATT negotiations. Little attention was paid to the Summit of the Americas meeting in Miami. The assembled ministers agreed to create a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and that it would be completed by January, 2005, and would enter into force by December, 2005. For ten years, 34 governments have been conducting negotiating sessions throughout the Americas, fashioning a new trade agreement that will swallow up both NAFTA and CAFTA, and,...

Karen Krebbs had an armed escort while she was out nights last week at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. She's not a law-enforcement agent and she doesn't dabble in anything illegal. She's a conservation biologist with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, studying an endangered population of nectar-feeding bats. Researchers along Arizona's border these days must balance their desire to study wildlife in the Sonoran Desert - where the chance to observe long-protected desert-dwelling populations proves an irresistible lure - with a growing fear of theft by desperate border crossers or violence from drug and people smugglers. The fears are fueled by...

U.S. sovereignty slip-sliding away -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 6, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Henry Lamb -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com It began in 1994. All the attention was focused on the new WTO emerging from the Uruguay round of GATT negotiations. Little attention was paid to the Summit of the Americas meeting in Miami. The assembled ministers agreed to create a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas and that it would be completed by January 2005, entering into force by December 2005. For ten years, 34 governments have been conducting negotiating sessions throughout the Americas, fashioning a new trade agreement that...

Government and business leaders in Guatemala applauded the U.S. House of Representatives for its approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) early Thursday, saying it will bring more jobs and foreign investment to the region. However, environmental and farmer organizations say the treaty will cause greater unemployment and more migration to the U.S. CAFTA will remove most tariffs from goods traded between the U.S., five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. It is expected to take force as early as January 1, 2006. The news brought mixed reactions in Guatemala, one of the six countries included in...

The House of Representatives today approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in a vote of 217 to 215. The vote is a major victory for President George Bush and the Republican House leadership. However, it comes at the expense of increased partisanship and mounting disarray in the conduct and management of U.S. trade policy. Before the treaty comes into effect, ratification by Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica is necessary, and this is not guaranteed. The congressional debate over CAFTA has proved the most inflamed and controversial since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. Economic...

When the North American Free Trade Agreement was being debated in 1993, the rhetoric from both the U.S. and Mexican governments was similarly emphatic. NAFTA would help deter migration by creating new jobs and prosperity in Mexico, they said. Several years later, NAFTA appears to have done just the opposite. While many Mexicans appreciate the elevated diplomatic status it has conferred upon their country, the trade pact has driven large numbers of farmers, small-business owners and laborers out of work. These people are left with few options but to seek a better life in the United States. NAFTA has helped...

CAFTA not merely about free trade By LIZA GRANDIA GUEST COLUMNIST At 2,400 pages, the Central America Free Trade Agreement isn't really about trade. Frankly, you don't need 2,400 pages to eliminate tariffs and regulations on exports and imports. But you might need 2,400 pages to smuggle through a new set of transnational corporate rights disguised by complicated legalese. I wonder how many in Congress will even bother to read this trade tome before voting? I recall in 1994 that only one senator, Republican Hank Brown of Colorado, accepted Ralph Nader's challenge to win $10,000 for charity by taking a...

Official: Agreement would threaten U.S. immigration laws TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- If the Central American Free Trade Agreement- Dominican Republic gets a thumbs up from the House of Representatives this month it will likely serve as the next stepping stone to a Western Hemispheric free-trade zone similar to the European Union. The North American Free Trade Agreement, now 10 years old, got the ball rolling connecting Canada, the United States and Mexico under one free-trade umbrella. Should CAFTA-DR pass, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic will increase the scope of free trade to the northern...

Mr. OTTER. Mr. Speaker, I join the three previous speakers tonight, and I rise today in the urgent interest of America's sovereignty and the primacy of our laws and the Constitution. They are under attack, Mr. Speaker, by the Central American Free Trade Agreement that will soon be considered by this Chamber. In fact, even referring to CAFTA as a ``trade agreement'' is a misnomer. Yes, it involves trade; but its influence on our economy, our legal system, and our way of life would be much more serious and sweeping than the benign term ``trade agreement'' suggests. At its core,...

Welcome to www.SecureAmericasBorders.com . We built this website to gather the opinions of Americans who are concerned about the security of our borders and who believe our immigration policy should be reformed.   The Security and Immigration Survey focuses specifically on ideas and proposals to improve our border security and reform our immigration policy.   We hope you will complete the survey.   Thank you for your interest.

Tommy Thompson Gets Chip Implant Implanted microchips are getting a plug from a heavy hitter - former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. Thompson plans to promote a product made by his new company � a medical info chip � by having one implanted in his arm. "It doesn't cause any pain," Thompson told Paul Bedard, who writes the Washington Whispers column in U.S. News & World Report. The chip is made by Florida-based VeriChip, which recently added Thompson to its board of directors. The rice-size chip contains a 16-digit identification code that can be scanned at hospitals and...

Congress is likely to vote on whether to approve the Central American Free Trade Agreement before the end of the month. On Friday, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called CAFTA the “big ticket” item on the House agenda next week, which is strongly backed by President Bush. Proponents argue CAFTA will promote trade and help some local businesses, especially farmers in West Virginia. Critics point to the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed by President Clinton in 1993, which eliminated many trade barriers with Mexico and Canada and ended up costing Americans more than a million jobs. “I just...

Puts & Calls / NO on Cafta, say Kevin L. Kearns and Alan Tonelson, who warn it exploits the weak Sunday, July 24, 2005 By Kevin L. Kearns and Alan Tonelson China's attempt to take over the U.S. oil company Unocal is a major test for Congress on Sino-American relations. Congress' answer so far -- harsh but toothless resolutions, hearing after hearing, and a tight focus on the narrow complaints of the rival Unocal bidder, Chevron -- deserves an "incomplete" at best. The state-owned Chinese oil firm CNOOC's heavily subsidized bid for Unocal should be blocked, both to limit the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Proponents of so-called "free" trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which I opposed, have long promised endless riches for U.S. workers, farmers, businesses and economy. They've been wrong on all counts. Failed U.S. trade policies have led to the export of millions of high-paying American jobs; decline in U.S. living standards; soaring trade deficits; and a significant erosion of U.S. sovereignty to international trade bureaucrats. Despite this unbroken record of failure, the House is expected to vote before August on an agreement the Bush administration negotiated to...

Decades ago a woman whose in-laws were religiously conservative Mennonite people told me this funny story. The grandmother cooked noon dinner every day for her husband, their adult sons and all the farmhands. Since the farm was mostly worked by the muscle power of either men or horses, those hard-working men were monumental eaters. The grandmother roasted, boiled, whipped and baked walloping amounts of home-canned vegetables, mashed potatoes, big servings of meat, heavy desserts. My friend was very surprised the day she walked into the grandmother's traditional farm kitchen - and there was a brand-new microwave oven. (This was in...

In case you haven't the least idea what the heck it means for China to "float" its currency, let me put it in the language we economists use: China's float don't mean squat. Yet our President, a guy whose marks in Economics 101 are too embarrassing to publish here, ran out to hail the fact that buying Chinese money will now cost more dollars. The White House line to the media, swallowed whole, is that by making Chinese money (yuan) more expensive to buy with dollars, Americans will buy fewer computers and toys from China--and US employment will rise. This...

The Bush administration's free-trade agreement with Central America would cost taxpayers $50 million a year in loan forfeitures by sugar farmers, the Congressional Budget Office says. An administration official said Thursday that the analysis was unrealistic and that there would be virtually no cost under sugar provisions in the deal. The CBO released its estimate as House leaders planned for a vote next week on the Central America Free Trade Agreement. It would remove or lower trade barriers with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and he Dominican Republic. Overall, CAFTA would cost the U.S. about $4.4 billion over...

India is likely to open its market for quota-and duty-free access of LDC products before the coming WTO ministerial meet slated for December 13-18 in Hong Kong, in compliance of international trade rules, reports UNB. The Indian side gave the hint at the fifth WTO mini-ministerial meeting in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, according to message received in Dhaka on Thursday. The three-day meeting concluded today (Thursday). Bangladesh at the July 12-14 Dalian round of talks strongly demanded of the developing and advanced developing counties to provide quota-and duty-free access of agriculture and non-agriculture products of the least developed...

Gov. Jeb Bush Wednesday morning welcomed trade representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States as they gathered in Miami to negotiate the 11th round of the U.S.-Andean Free Trade Agreement. Nearly 1,000 delegates from throughout the Andean Region and the United States are to take part in the weeklong activities, expected to last through July 22. The Greater Miami Visitors and Conventions Bureau estimated the economic impact of the meeting at $1.5 million. The city has known it would host the event since it was chosen for the honor during the Miami Free Trade Area of the Americas...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - All of the estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the United States would have to leave the country under an immigration bill introduced on Tuesday by two conservative Republican senators. The bill by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl and Texas Sen. John Cornyn is a tougher alternative to a rival bipartisan bill introduced two month ago that would allow some illegals to get jobs legally and eventually gain citizenship without leaving the country. The Kyl-Cornyn bill calls for the creation of a machine-readable, tamper-proof Social Security card that would be issued to every American in...

TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- "CAFTA is NAFTA on steroids," said Kent Snyder, executive director of The Liberty Committee, a group whose motto is "Political Action From Principle." Affiliated with congressional representative Ron Paul, R-Texas -- who also opposes the Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic -- the committee holds that CAFTA-DR, like the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement isn't really about true free trade; it's about global managed trade. "Think about it," Snyder said. "Why does it take over 1,000 pages to define free trade?" In administrative works for several years CAFTA would create a NAFTA-like free trade zone...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The proposed trade pact is fatally flawed in its present form A current radio commercial urges Alabamians to oppose CAFTA "because CAFTA rhymes with NAFTA" and references the opposition to NAFTA of H. Ross Perot, the erstwhile presidential candidate who once claimed President George H.W. Bush was plotting to disrupt Perot's daughter's wedding. No, that ad doesn't give you much meat to chew on. Anyone who would oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement (or CAFTA-DR, now that leaders in the Dominican Republic have come aboard) on the basis of that...

Congress will soon take up the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which many see as an extension of NAFTA and a precursor to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas that would convert all of North and South America into one integrated market. Opinions about CAFTA's impact on the regional economy vary widely among members of Congress based largely on what the agreement will do for their constituents. But in the rush to highlight who wins and who loses when these trade barriers come down, almost everyone has overlooked the troubling non-trade provisions that are tucked into the voluminous...

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has just let the cat out of the bag about what's really behind our trade agreements and security partnerships with the other North American countries. A 59-page CFR document spells out a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter." "Community" means integrating the United States with the corruption, socialism, poverty and population of Mexico and Canada. "Common perimeter" means wide-open U.S. borders between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. "Community" is sometimes called "space" but the CFR goal is clear: "a...

CAFTA, the “Central American Free Trade Agreement” is being sold as a “free trade agreement” between the US and several nations in the Central American region. What is it and what does it matter to you? CAFTA is really not about “free trade.” “Free trade” is the bait. The hook, the catch, is regional government. Free trade is really unregulated, unimpeded trade. This is not what CAFTA is about. CAFTA will increase trade regulation between the US and Central America, not decrease it. Take a look at the hundreds of pages of regulations listed in the CAFTA charter. This is...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The outsourcing-happy folks who run The Wall Street Journal opinion pages have forgotten one of the pillars of opinion-journalism ethics: truth in advertising. The article they ran July 14 by Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Henry M. Paulson, Jr., titled "CAFTA is the American Way," was simply the usual pro-treaty drivel with one critical exception. Paulson never mentioned, and the Journal never disclosed, that the Goldman Sachs chief is a de facto paid agent of the Chinese government. After all, Goldman is advising the Chinese government-owned and controlled China National Offshore...

U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA) today called on fellow House Members to closely examine the system of settling all trade and immigration disputes under CAFTA, as a violation of American legal principles and a kangaroo court system stacked against the United States. In the event that Central American governments' understanding of CAFTA immigration provisions are different than what the Bush Administration is now telling Congress, it would be an international tribunal set up under CAFTA and staffed by a panel of three "judges" that would settle the dispute. CAFTA rules under Article 20.9 dictate that the tribunal consists of two...

Though the House rejected a measure that would have withdrawn the U.S. from the WTO, a vocal minority of representatives explained their opposition eloquently. On June 9, the House of Representatives rejected House Joint Resolution 27, which would have withdrawn U.S. approval of the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO), by a vote of 86-338. The principal sponsors of H. J. Res. 27 would make a curious pair of bookends on anyone's political spectrum. They were libertarian-conservative Ron Paul (R-Texas) and socialist Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Despite huge ideological differences, the two apparently share a disdain for the domination of...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. 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...

Four women staged a demonstration Tuesday afternoon on a North Brownsville boulevard to raise public aware-ness about the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement awaiting congressional approval. Hortencia Armendariz and three friends stood on Ruben Torres Boulevard with signs and leaflets to hand out to passers-by about CAFTA and the North American Free Trade Agreement. “We are afraid of the consequences of CAFTA,” Armendariz said. “It’s just an extension of NAFTA.” The group protested in front of the Paseo Plaza Shopping Center and later took their demonstration to the office of U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi. Though Ortiz...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Athletes who fall for obvious head fakes aren't usually rewarded by their coaches. They're usually chewed out and even benched for clueless play. Deserving of the same fate would be those Members of Congress who trade their "No" votes on CAFTA for a series of China trade promises being dangled by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas – as clumsy a set of head fakes as Capitol Hill has seen in recent years. Thomas's promises deal with real, but very minor, China concerns. Many CAFTA critics, especially among the...

TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- "CAFTA is NAFTA on steroids," said Kent Snyder, executive director of The Liberty Committee, a group whose motto is "Political Action From Principle." Affiliated with congressional representative Ron Paul, R-Texas -- who also opposes the Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic -- the committee holds that CAFTA-DR, like the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement isn't really about true free trade; it's about global managed trade. "Think about it," Snyder said. "Why does it take over 1,000 pages to define free trade?" In administrative works for several years CAFTA would create a NAFTA-like free trade zone...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman, outlining the lawmaker’s serious concerns with the nearly 1,000 page-long Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). “This agreement opens America’s borders to a lot more than sugar and bananas,” said Tancredo, “This agreement, as drafted, will effectively give people from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic a de facto right to work in the United States.” The agreement comes on the heels of prior trade agreements with Singapore and Chile, both of which also included provisions liberalizing immigration law. Despite...

Treasonous agenda of the Trilateral Commission"The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values."– Zbigniew Brzeninski, National Security Adviser to Jimmy Carter and President Bush as co-chairman of the Bush National Security Advisery Task Force; executive director of the Trilateral Commission My column last week focused on the Council on Foreign Relations and their anti-American agenda. This treasonous operation is another one of the tentacles birthed by the elitists out to destroy our constitutional republic, turn us into a democracy (America is not...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. In their desperation to conclude another outsourcing-based, anti-US domestic manufacturing free trade deal, the proponents of CAFTA are advancing yet another specious argument in an attempt to win votes from national-security-minded Members of Congress. The argument is essentially that because CAFTA will allegedly help the economies of the CENTRAL American countries, it will, therefore, also help with their respective national security situations and provide political stability as well. Just as the flawed economic argument for CAFTA is that it will help American and Central American firms compete better against the Chinese...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. – In contrast to the independent U.S. International Trade Commission projections of CAFTA's impact, the American Farm Bureau Federation's CAFTA analysis is not a study of the agreement's trade liberalization effects alone. It is a study whose results depend on wishful thinking about Central America's future. – Focusing solely on trade liberalization's effects, the USITC predicts $328 million in increased U.S. agricultural exports to the region when CAFTA is fully implemented – that is, 20 years from now. – That long-run increase represents only 0.5 percent of 2004 U.S. global agricultural...

The harsh treatment handed out to European Union ideals by French and Dutch voters this month was in part a reaction to excessive EU bureaucracy and expansionism. But it was also a gut rejection of so-called globalization -- the foolish effort to deny economic and social differences between nations. The idea, for example, that EU governments could be fined for not submitting to EU-imposed fiscal and free-trade policies was absurd from the start. Some nations need to protect economies and industries; some don't. Ironically, the same EU now threatens anti-free trade, protectionist fines to keep Chinese textiles at bay. Conventional...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. General Motors is hiring in Brazil even though there are massive layoffs at GM plants in the United States and Europe, The Washington Times reported Wednesday. A portion of GM's engineering work that was previously done in the United States is being shipped overseas to Brazil and South Korea, a move that will cost U.S. workers more than 6,000 jobs a year from now until 2008, reported the Times. In turn, GM expects to save between $1 billion and $2 billion per auto project. Brazilian engineers at GM earn about $25,000...

The Labor Department kept secret for more than a year government studies that supported Democratic opponents of the Bush administration's new Central American trade deal, internal documents show. The studies, paid for by the department, concluded that several countries the administration wants to be granted free-trade status have poor working conditions and fail to protect workers' rights. The agency dismissed the conclusions as inaccurate and biased, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press. "In practice, labor laws on the books in Central America are not sufficient to deter employers from violations, as actual sanctions for violations of the law...

A Senate committee on Wednesday approved a trade agreement with Latin American nations, moving Congress a step closer to a decision on an accord that may have minimal effects on the U.S. economy but is of considerable political import to the Bush administration. The Finance Committee approved the agreement by a voice vote, although it was closely divided on the issue. The bill now goes to the full Senate for a vote as early as this week. Passage in the Senate, traditionally more sympathetic to trade agreements, could give the measure some momentum in the House, where there is stiffer...

The United States and its North American neighbors say they will set up a trusted traveler scheme for the whole continent by 2008, and will this year develop a plan to respond together to major terror attacks and other incidents. Trusted traveler programs enable people who provide biometric personal data -- like fingerprints or iris scans -- pay a fee and submit to background checks to use special travel lanes at border crossings. The idea is to speed processing for those travelers not thought security risks, and whose identity can be verified biometrically. A Department of Homeland Security statement Monday...

Free Trade: Rep. James Moran (news, bio, voting record) leans left and serves a large Salvadoran-American constituency. He's also a serious man who recognizes a growing potential for instability and conflict in the Americas.The Democrat from Virginia supports the Central America Free Trade Agreement. Unlike most in his party, Moran knows this isn't "Bush's" treaty. It's America's long-term interest no matter who's in office 10 years from now. It's about much more than just trade. From his point of view, it's something very unlike what Democrats see as the Bush approach to national security. Rather than a cold war, a...

ORLANDO -- What's in an acronym? Apparently not a lot of business if the acronym is CAFTA and the region is Central Florida. Although the Bush administration is ardently pushing for approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, even the pact's supporters admit few businesses locally or statewide are clamoring to do business with Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. "I can't tell you who will benefit because I don't know who will benefit," says Barney Bishop, president of Tallahassee-based Associated Industries of Florida, a pro-CAFTA group which represents 10,000 businesses. "It's not an...

WASHINGTON, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement from Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa: The clock started ticking today on thousands of jobs in the United States with the introduction of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. Congress has only 90 days to reject this job-killing trade proposal. I call on my 1.4 million brothers and sisters in the Teamsters Union, along with working families across the United States and around the world, to mobilize against CAFTA and for job protections and basic international labor standards. The time constraints imposed by the fast track...

Minneapolis - The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) will lead to increased ethanol exports largely from Brazil entering into the U.S. tariff-free, according to a new report released today by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). The report found that agribusiness firms are already investing heavily in Brazil and the Central American region in an effort to take advantage of the CAFTA ethanol provisions. Under CAFTA, if Central American countries convert Brazilian ethanol into fuel for the U.S., 240 million gallons of ethanol could be exported into the U.S. tariff-free in 2005. That number is just the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Nine Inland Valley companies were among several dozen from the state that signed on Tuesday as opponents to the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The companies involved signed a letter released in Washington, D.C., by the United States Business and Industrial Council urging Americans to reject CAFTA as "not a trade agreement, an outsourcing agreement." The USBIC and its affiliated research arm, the USBIC Educational Foundation, lobbies on behalf of domestic family-owned and closely held firms that create new products, jobs and growth in the U.S. "This is the wrong deal...

Jones says, “CAFTA would mean more job losses for Americans.” Washington, D.C.- In a press conference today, Third District Representative Walter B. Jones joined House colleagues and business organizations to speak out against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA.) Congressman Jones hosted the bipartisan event with Rep. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. “CAFTA would mean more job losses for Americans. CAFTA is nothing but an extension of NAFTA (the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement)—85 percent of the language in CAFTA is identical to that in NAFTA,” Jones said. “Since NAFTA was signed, my home state of North Carolina has lost...