[Willie Green]

ping

[A. Pole]

This means that each nation must treat goods, services, and suppliers from the other CAFTA parties in a manner that is "no less favorable" than domestic firms when awarding government contracts. The chapter also bars discrimination against locally established suppliers on the basis of foreign affiliation or ownership. This means governments cannot treat their own citizens better than foreigners, or use "buy domestic" policies to support their own economies with their own public funds.
[...]
There are already public rumblings about Federal, State and local governments outsourcing work overseas, including sending sensitive personal records to foreign data processing centers.

Free trade bump.

[Paul Ross]

The USTR who negotiated CAFTA was not concerned with such matters, not even when they involved sustaining the U.S. defense industrial base. When the House Armed Services Committee proposed reforms to bolster the domestic production of critical weapons technology for the American armed forces in the 2004 Defense Authorization Act, USTR Robert Zoellick objected. He hates any "buy America" language, even when national security was at stake. Yet, the WTO GPA allows "the protection of essential security interests relating to the procurement of arms, ammunition or war materials, or to procurement indispensable for national security or for national defense purposes." It is an odd thing indeed when the WTO shows more concern for national interests than does the USTR.

Indeed. One would think that the Xlintonian...Thomas Barnett was President...