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CAFTA is the answer to China's growing power
The Seattle Times ^ | May 24, 2005 | Froma Harrop

Posted on 05/24/2005 7:08:18 AM PDT by 1rudeboy

It really matters where the jobs that Americans lose go. That's what CAFTA is about. It's not about destroying textile jobs in the Carolinas. They're history, anyway--if not this year, then in five years. CAFTA is about keeping work in our hemisphere that would otherwise go to China.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement would cut tariffs on commerce among the United States, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. The Dominican Republic, which is in the Caribbean, also wants to join.

Though President Bush is battling hard for the accord, some observers declare it all but dead. The generally pro-trade New Democrat Coalition has just jumped ship. But new Democrats should think again and back CAFTA. So should old Democrats.

Organized labor doesn't want to hear this defeatist talk about managing losses. That's understandable. But while labor has been dealt a bad hand, it still must play the cards. That means choosing the least bad of bad options.

Some labor critics point to NAFTA as a reason to shoot down CAFTA. The 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement covered the United States, Canada and Mexico. Foes of these accords note, for example, that there were 127,000 textile and apparel jobs in South Carolina before NAFTA. Now there are 48,000.

The truth is, the United States was bleeding these kinds of factory jobs decades before NAFTA. And it's unclear how large a part NAFTA has played in the years since.

Many of these jobs were not sucked down to Mexico but over to China and other Asian countries. And of the lost jobs that can be traced to Mexico, how many would have simply gone to China instead, had it not been for NAFTA? Even Mexico has seen factories move to China.

Labor-intensive industries in America continue to fight a hopeless war against competitors paying pennies-an-hour wages. The futility of it all can be seen in the following numbers, provided by A.T. Kearney, a consulting firm:

It costs $135 to make 12 pairs of cotton trousers in the United States. It costs $57 to make the trousers in China and ship them here. It costs $69 to do so in other parts of the world.

In this business, the United States is clearly out of the running. But many low-wage countries are still contenders with China--especially if they can ship their products here tariff-free.

Americans would be better off if their imports came from Managua, rather than Guangdong. After all, our Latin neighbors are more likely to buy the things we have to sell. That's why farmers producing beef, pork and corn are all for these treaties. So are U.S. companies that make machinery, especially for construction.

Then there are foreign-policy considerations. CAFTA partners would include very poor countries with fragile democracies. More trade with the United States could stabilize them--and reduce the pressures on their people to come here illegally. And if the workers make more money, they'll be able to buy more American goods.

Some Democrats argue that these poor countries compete by exploiting their workers. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., for example, opposes the accord because, he says, "the basic rights of working people in Central America are systematically repressed."

He has it backward. Economic desperation creates the conditions for oppression. Workers are strongest where jobs are plentiful. CAFTA could empower workers and lift them from grinding poverty.

Rather than protect jobs that will eventually leave America, labor and its Democratic allies should protect the people who lose them. Trade Adjustment Assistance is a federal program that offers financial help and training for Americans who lose jobs because of imports.

Democrats complain that the program is underfunded, and they are right. So why not make more money for Trade Adjustment Assistance a bargaining chip to win support for CAFTA?

There's no exit door out of this global economy. Parts of the American economy will do well in it; other parts will not. Free trade in the Americas is about joining with our neighbors in a common defense against China's growing power. Those are the true stakes, and fighting futile battles will only distract us from what matters.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cafta; globalism; nwo; pellgrants; trade
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To: Dog Gone
That's true, and if they modernize and grow their GDP, that's all the more reason for their citizens to try to sneak into our country.

You are correct sir!! Just look at how many more Irish immigrants we have sneaking into our ports today compared to the 1840s and 1850s. The richer Ireland gets the faster the Irish leave her.

201 posted on 05/24/2005 3:52:16 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: BnBlFlag
Actually, it has done the opposite of everything you have said. It's merely a first step to the EU of the Americas.
This would mean a total loss of our sovereignty as an independent nation.

I give. You win. How can I fight such a well-researched, cohesive argument? LOL

202 posted on 05/24/2005 3:53:22 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Toddsterpatriot
Really? How many jobs did we have before NAFTA? How many now?

Let me repeat it since you didn't read my previous post. Good paying manufacturing jobs have been replaced by lower paying service ones. If you think someone would rather flip burgers at $7.00 an hour instead of working in an automobile plant making $20.00 then I guess I've got it all wrong, Free Trade is wonderful.

203 posted on 05/24/2005 3:53:30 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: BnBlFlag
Actually, it has done the opposite of everything you have said.

Maybe you could put down your purse and post a fact to back you up?

Or do we have to rely on your feelings?

204 posted on 05/24/2005 3:53:41 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: Reaganwuzthebest
And what from our market they can buy anyway making those kind of wages?

According to the USTR, something on the order of 15.7 billion dollar's worth of merchandise in 2004. I know, I know, pocket change. /sarc

205 posted on 05/24/2005 3:55:04 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Reaganwuzthebest
Good paying manufacturing jobs have been replaced by lower paying service ones.

So wages dropped then? How about a link to prove your feelings about jobs are correct?

206 posted on 05/24/2005 3:55:12 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
How about a link to prove your feelings about jobs are correct?

Apparently, there are some "reliable" ones out there. But I have a feeling that they are rapidly falling into the Pell Grant memory hole.

207 posted on 05/24/2005 3:57:59 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
Apparently, there are some "reliable" ones out there. But I have a feeling that they are rapidly falling into the Pell Grant memory hole.?

Get real, so many links and charts have been posted on these threads documenting the loss of real wages and good paying jobs thanks to NAFTA that to keep doing it is a waste of time.

The bottom line is in the real world the ones who count in Congress are hearing from their angry constituents and they know some of their communities have been devasted. If they want to keep their jobs they'll just say no to CAFTA.

208 posted on 05/24/2005 4:02:55 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: 1rudeboy

Maybe they were out in the Sun for too long. Can't remember where I left that link.


209 posted on 05/24/2005 4:02:55 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: Reaganwuzthebest
Here are some facts you don't want to believe. The Central American labor market can make things we want right now cheaper than we can make them.

Nothing in CAFTA will change that one way or the other. It's just a fact.

The Central American market isn't that small. You should visit there some time. People somehow think it resembles Mexican border towns. Not so.

We can sell them food at prices cheaper than their current cost to produce it. So everyone is a potential consumer.

In El Salvador, the tariff on a new US car is 30%. That means it costs 30% more for one of their residents to buy a US car than you pay. CAFTA eliminates that. We will sell more cars there as a result.

This is not complicated economics.

210 posted on 05/24/2005 4:03:06 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Toddsterpatriot

ROFL


211 posted on 05/24/2005 4:04:31 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Reaganwuzthebest
Get real, so many links and charts have been posted on these threads documenting the loss of real wages and good paying jobs thanks to NAFTA that to keep doing it is a waste of time.

Hahahaha. I don't need to post any facts. Perfect. You're living down to our expectations.

You were right rude, I owe you a beer.

212 posted on 05/24/2005 4:04:33 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: Reaganwuzthebest
Get real, so many links and charts have been posted on these threads documenting the loss of real wages and good paying jobs thanks to NAFTA that to keep doing it is a waste of time.

Maybe, but here you stated that you've "got some." What happened?

213 posted on 05/24/2005 4:06:26 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Toddsterpatriot
Stop it! I can't take anymore!
I called it!
214 posted on 05/24/2005 4:10:28 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Maybe his links and charts were outsourced? Or was it his brain?


215 posted on 05/24/2005 4:11:00 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
It takes two seconds to google links that demonstrate falling real wages since NAFTA was approved:

FACTSHEET ON THE NAFTA RECORD

It doesn't matter though, your mind is made up that Free Trade is wonderful and prosperity for one and all is right around the corner.

216 posted on 05/24/2005 4:11:42 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: Toddsterpatriot

A beer sounds good right about now. It's been a fine day. Later, everybody.


217 posted on 05/24/2005 4:12:15 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Dog Gone
We can sell them food at prices cheaper than their current cost to produce it. So everyone is a potential consumer.:

What I stand by is the claim that NAFTA has already proven any economic gain from exports, if there is any will be far outweighed by a net loss of more good-paying jobs. We are practically inviting American companies to ditch their domestic workers in favor of the cheaper ones in these third world countries.

218 posted on 05/24/2005 4:16:24 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: Reaganwuzthebest

There is nothing on your link about falling real wages for Americans. Try again?


219 posted on 05/24/2005 4:16:30 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: Mase
Typical FR post, everyone's wandered from the thread to food critic, historian, name calling etc.
Bottom line is, China would not be that big of a concern without the duckets that free trade has provided for her expansion. Now we're told we've birthed a monster and must seek allies in Latin America to protect ourselves?
220 posted on 05/24/2005 4:21:42 PM PDT by investigateworld ( God bless Poland for giving the world JP II & a Protestant bump for his Sainthood!)
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