Posted on 07/27/2005 9:14:44 PM PDT by RWR8189
WASHINGTON - The House narrowly approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement early Thursday, a personal triumph for President Bush, who campaigned aggressively for the accord he said would foster prosperity and democracy in the hemisphere.
The 217-215 vote just after midnight adds six Latin American countries to the growing lists of nations with free trade agreements with the United States and averts what could have been a major political embarrassment for the Bush administration.
It was an uphill effort to win a majority, with Bush traveling to Capitol Hill earlier in the day to appeal to wavering Republicans to support a deal he said was critical to U.S. national security.
Lobbying continued right up to the vote, with Vice President Dick Cheney, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record) and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez tracking undecided lawmakers.
The United States signed the accord, known as CAFTA, a year ago with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, and the Senate approved it last month. It now goes to the president for his signature.
To capture a majority, supporters had to overcome what some have called free trade fatigue, a growing sentiment that free trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada have contributed to a loss of well-paying American jobs and the soaring trade deficit.
Democrats, who were overwhelmingly against CAFTA, also argued that its labor rights provisions were weak and would result in exploitation of workers in Central America.
But supporters pointed out that CAFTA would over time eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers that impede U.S. sales to the region, correcting the current situation in which 80 percent of Central American goods enter the United States duty-free but Americans must pay heavy tariffs.
The agreement would also strengthen intellectual property protections and make it easier for Americans to invest in the region.
"This is a test of American leadership in a changing world," said Rep. Kevin Brady (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, a leading proponent of the agreement. "We cannot claim to be fighting for American jobs and yet turn our backs on 44 million new customers in Central America.
Great news. Maybe I should get to reading the 24,000 pages [snicker] of this Agreement.
I think that all numbers matter, but some are closer to the final answer than others. Debating local effects, lifestyle changes and other soft benefits and losses is interesting, but unless theyre dramatic or intrinsic to the proper role of government, its probably not a wise idea to chase them with national policy.
I dont know whats the best indicator to judge trade policy (and taken to the extreme, thats going to depend on your ideology) but I think that gross exports to the nations involved is a better than GDP. GDP cant be ignored, but its is more a factor of other things. Gross exports are more a factor of our trade policy.
Some would rather focus on the balance of trade indicator, but I think the effect of the imports component is too nebulous to universally consider them a pro or con (like what you were referring to.) If imports increase by a factor of 10 after policy change, and our exports only doubled, we my still come out well ahead. Just because some industries are put out of business here does not mean that employment has fallen (which it hasnt) or that wages have decreased (which they havent). It just means that our economy changed and other countries received greater benefit from the deal than we did. But we may have both benefited because the size of the pie that were dividing got larger. We would have created wealth together.
There are of course other strategic considerations, especially with military threats like China, but bringing prosperity, economic dependence and cultural influence to such nations may outweigh the risk.
from the link you provided:
The Administrative Council is chaired by the World Bank's President and consists of one representative of each State which has ratified the Convention.
A third activity of ICSID in the field of the settlement of disputes has consisted in the Secretary-General of ICSID accepting to act as the appointing authority of arbitrators for ad hoc (i.e., non-institutional) arbitration proceedings. This is most commonly done in the context of arrangements for arbitration under the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), which are specially designed for ad hoc proceedings.
See#503
If I'm not mistaken, some Walmart employees have such a low pay scale that they qualify for certain TAXPAYER funded medical services......if that's the case it would seem that Walmart should be sourcing out more goods domestically. Of course, they probably feel they have no obligation to do so much like most companies that hire illegals......why provide benefits when the crooks in gov't. will make sure the taxpayers get stuck with the bill.
I do. God bless them.
You didn't ask me.
It is not very easy.
I'm not really interested in your over-the-top histrionics, so perhaps you should go back to the land of the dead where you came from and get out of this evil country.......
btw, foul language offends me, so knock it off, OK?
(My representative voted AYE, so I'm going to e-mail him and thank him for voting for the economic good of the country....)
You affirm my point. Thank you.
"In the case of the United States." That means -- plainly; inarguably; irrefutably -- we are E-X-E-M-P-T from having to surrender our authority, re: trade, to the UN. Case closed. Period. End of sentence. Full stop.
You don't get to cite only the scariest-seeming, ooga-booga-portions of the document, whilst simultaneously squeezing your eyes shut and pretending with all your might that the other portions don't exist, given that they're lancing your argument like a boil. The words say what they say. Cope.
You're welcome. You are the king of banality.
I don't care. When I see our sovereignty swirling down the drain, I tend to get irksome. BTW, you read into the statement any profanity. I used a dash. So there.
Nothing is funnier than "watching" the black-helicopter crowd interpret documents. Consider yourself fortunate that you received the compliment of an actual citation. It rarely happens.
Thanks! At last, my own command...
A twelve year old could come up with a more mature response than that!
I'll assume you're eleven.......that fits the uncontrolled emotional outburst, and avoiding personal responsibility for bad behavior attitude you exhibit....
Now either get a grip of your emotions or leave me alone. I have no time for your childishness.
It's the banal approach..
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