Posted on 06/27/2005 5:39:51 PM PDT by Dog Gone
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks can be one very gutsy lawmaker.
Nearly all the other Democrats in the House of Representatives – plus a disappointing number of Republicans – have come out in opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Not Dicks. He recognizes that enacting CAFTA is the right thing to do, both for the country and for this trade-dependent state.
But it’s far from clear that he will be joined by enough lawmakers to secure the approval of CAFTA, which would ease trade barriers between the United States and six Central American nations. It would be a shame if the treaty ultimately failed to win approval.
The U.S. textile, sugar and tool-making industries are fighting CAFTA for the sake of old-fashioned protectionism: They simply don’t want to compete with the likes of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
But Congress has shown itself capable of rising above protectionism . CAFTA is in danger chiefly because it is being used politically as a proxy for other things: anxieties about globalization in general as well as organized labor’s many gripes about the Bush administration.
What’s deceptive and disingenuous is the way the arguments against CAFTA are being couched in terms of protecting the very poor workers of Central America. Union leaders and their congressional allies, for example, complain about the fact that the treaty doesn’t guarantee Central Americans the right to organize.
Actually, CAFTA is probably the single best thing this country could do for those workers. If markets were to expand for Central American goods, Central American labor would be worth more, paid more and treated better. Workers would gain more leverage and find it easier to unionize if their employers persisted in exploiting and abusing them.
Unions in this country have legitimate grievances against the Bush Administration, but CAFTA should not be held hostage to those complaints.
As Dicks understands, Washington has a big stake in free trade, in Latin America and elsewhere. At least one in four jobs in this state is tied to international trade. Washington farmers and software manufacturers especially stand to gain from free and fair access to Central American markets.
But the national payoff transcends commerce. This country’s poverty-stricken, Central American neighbors have long been opportune targets for anti-yanqui demagogues. The United States has a vital interest in helping build a prosperous Central America that views it as a valuable trading partner.
Looking at Dicks’ anti-CAFTA colleagues, you have to wonder: Is it really that hard to vote the interests of our state and nation?
I wonder where the Buchanan brigades are?
Wha? Yew baitin Willie Green with dis??? (grin)
They'll show up. It's probably commute time in Berkelely, CA, right now.
Sure, and now since he's moved to Texas, he's a lot easier to reel in.
And you agree with this tripe?
No, I agree with this logical, well-written editorial.
It is amazing that a bunch of leftwing journalism school graduates are experts on everything from nuclear power to foreign trade.
And I always thought they majored in journalism because they could not understand enough math to carry a real major.
If you post it they will come.
Congressman Ron Paul says the CAFTA treaty has 2,400 pages. NAFTA and CAFTA are not about free trade, they are about political union.
Watch the history of the EU and you will see our future. First they do the economic union, then they push for political union. And it won't be under anything that looks like the U.S. Constitution.
Well, let's see....
CAFTA will be run by unaccountable bureaucrats that nobody voted for. They will write 10,000 laws that no citizen or legislator will ever be given a chance to approve or reject. The validity of the laws will be determined and judged by unelected NGO courts whose decisions may not be appealed.
Yep, it's another "free trade" dictatorship.
Oh, and CAFTA will create so many jobs that all the illegals will go running home manyana to slurp up the gravy, get blessed with manna from sustainable utopian swamp gods and live happily ever after with a chicken in every pot.
That's the tragedy of treaties like this. While free trade is a good thing their always seems to be some collectivist cockroachs lurking about ready to insert their poison into an otherwise good thing by messing with the details.
Perhaps you would like to put down whatever BS literature you're reading about this bill and prove it.
You can't, by they way, since I've read it and you obviously have not.
Prove me wrong.
Try reading the body of the text. It's not that long. The schedules phasing out the tariffs on our exports is long.
The idea the Guatamala is going to become part of the US as a result of CAFTA, or that it even leads to that is bonkers.
>> I wonder where the Buchanan brigades are?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1431895/posts
Their ranks are apparently thinning.
I figured he's gone so I din't ping 'em because of takin his name in vain.
Perhaps if Free Trade ageements had anything to do with illegal immigration, you'd have a point.
Well? Not everybody agrees with me that GovernMental EnvironMentalism is the eternal curse of humanity either so I guess there's the balance point. I sure see more Commonism & Socialism mixed with savage Paganism in G.E. (GovernMental EnvironMentalism) than I do in CAFTA & NAFTA and the like!!!
(That's why I think what I think is evil in EnvironMental treaties is way more evil that what some people think is evil in "free-trade" agreements.)
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