Posted on 06/27/2005 10:55:06 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer
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 issue where our phones are ringing off the hook. It's just not on the radar screen here in Florida."
The Manufacturing Association of Central Florida, which recently signed a letter generated by the U.S. Business and Industry Council in opposition to the trade agreement, also finds little local interest in CAFTA, despite the state's close proximity to that region.
"I don't know of anybody who plans to do business in Central America. No one's mentioning it to me," says Laurie Price, executive director of the association. "We haven't paid a lot of attention to (CAFTA) because nobody here is really affected by it."
Perhaps as an indicator of that sentiment, of the more than 1,900 foreign-affiliated firms with Florida offices that are registered with Enterprise Florida, only 32 are from the CAFTA countries. And all are located in South Florida.
While pro-CAFTA organizations such as Enterprise Florida, the state's public-private economic development partnership, say the pact will create 36,000 jobs in Florida during a 10-year period -- and generate $1.2 billion in personal income -- details are sketchy at best as to which industries will actually profit from its passage.
Lisa Nason, the Orlando-based director of corporate communications for Enterprise Florida, talks more in generalities, saying that by eliminating barriers to trade, it will bring long-term benefits to Florida.
Acknowledging that it's a very complicated topic, she also says in the short term, Floridians may not see much to cheer about, even though the pact would immediately eliminate 80 percent of the duties on the goods the U.S. ships there each year.
"But don't forget the long-term view. This is creating the framework for the future," Nason says.
'Boom' in commerce J. Antonio Villamil, founder of the Washington Economic Group Inc. in Coral Gables and a former undersecretary of commerce to President George H.W. Bush, agrees.
"When you create a free trade area, you create a boom in commerce and investment," he says. "This is really a step in the process of creating the largest free trade zone in the Americas."
Trade between Florida and the CAFTA countries already generates billions of dollars annually, creating a modest surplus in Florida's favor, according to statistics from Enterprise Florida.
In 2004, exports to those six countries totaled nearly $8.2 billion, while imports totaled slightly more than $8 billion. Of the $8.2 billion, more than $3.2 billion were made in Florida, while the rest came from transshipments from other states.
Generally speaking, most of the import and export trade with those countries involve apparel, textiles and agriculture, except for Costa Rica, which imports a lot of electronic, medical and office products.
While proponents of the pact tout the duty-free benefits of it for U.S. agriculture, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Charlie Bronson isn't buying it, partly because of his experience with the North American Free Trade Agreement enacted more than 10 years ago.
"(Florida) lost 500 farms because of NAFTA," says Bronson, who presides over an industry deeply divided on the agreement. "With this, agriculture takes it on the chin so that (other industries) have a good year.
"As agriculture commissioner, I don't think that's a good trade-off."
'Way, way overselling' benefits Villamil concedes there will be "winners and losers" with the passage of CAFTA, but overall, it will be a good deal.
By raising living standards in the CAFTA countries, it will foster stability and democracy, create the demand for U.S. goods and services, generate more tourism and help America's security by reducing illegal immigration, Villamil says.
There is no question a lot of political pressure to support CAFTA is being brought into the mix.
Associated Industries of Florida -- without surveying its members -- decided to support CAFTA because it is affiliated with the pro-CAFTA National Manufacturers Association, which approached the group to secure its endorsement.
It was only after Associated Industries of Florida endorsed CAFTA that Bishop says he learned "we have members on both sides" of the issue.
The state's citrus industry is supporting CAFTA after the Bush administration asked for help. The decision angered sugar and some vegetable interests because citrus doesn't face competition from the CAFTA countries, while they do. Some believe the citrus industry's support is simply payback for administration support of citrus on other issues.
"The administration is way, way overselling the benefits of CAFTA," says Mark Levinson, chief economist for New York-based Unite Here, a 450,000-member union representing garment, textile, hospitality and gaming workers.
As he sees it, the pact is a sop to big business.
"The U.S. will lose jobs here and the CAFTA nations won't benefit, either," Levinson says. "The only ones who will benefit are the multinationals. They will close shop here and set up there where there is cheap labor and fewer environmental regulations."
More on CAFTA.
• CAFTA represents the second largest market for U.S. small business exports in Latin America, consuming over $4 billion dollars in consumer and industrial goods alone.Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (.pdf file)• U.S. small businesses create more than 37% of the value of U.S. exports to the CAFTA region, higher (as a percentage) than exports to the rest of the world.
• NAFTA has shown that free trade has been beneficial for U.S. small business exporters. From 1992 to 2002, U.S. small business share of total exports to the NAFTA countries grew by over 6%.
There's nobody down there left to do business with anyway. They're all in south Florida!
In general, anybody intending to stay IN Florida agricultural production are going to be screwed. Those supporting CAFTA are most likely acquiring land to shift production offshore, and selling off their Florida holdings to real estate developers. Their imports will undercut those who try to continue production in Florida. If that isn't bad enough, the recent SCOTUS ruling will enable Jeb Bush to use eminent domain to condemn Florida farmland for the benefit of more real estate development as well.,
Unions are against it.
Therefore I'm for it.
I think its safe to say that unions are against slavery. That must mean you are for it.
Thought of that all by yourself, did you?
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