Posted on 07/15/2005 8:36:53 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
President Bush's tour of a North Carolina textile mill takes him to the kind of business that critics say would be damaged by his free trade pact with Central America.
Ahead of that visit Friday, Bush was to meet at the White House with President Antonio Saca of El Salvador, one of the countries that is a party to the trade agreement.
The Central American Free Trade Agreement passed the Senate on a 54-45 vote two weeks ago. It could come up as early as next week in the House, where its fate is less certain. It faces near-solid Democratic opposition and only lukewarm GOP support.
Bush was scheduled to tour the Helms plant of R.L. Stowe Mills in Belmont, in the Piedmont region of central North Carolina, and then give a speech at nearby Gaston College. Both are in the district of Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., the only one of North Carolina's 13-member House delegation to publicly endorse the measure.
The trade agreement, signed by the United States a year ago, would end or sharply lower trade barriers with the five Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. It would also apply to the Dominican Republic, a Caribbean nation.
The measure "is important to supporting emerging democracies in Central America," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
It would also help stabilize trade between the United States and the region, McClellan said. "Right now, when 80 percent of the imports from Central America come in here duty-free, that creates an unlevel playing field. We want to make sure the markets are open and that there's a level playing field."
North Carolina is one of the hotbeds of opposition to the pact, which is modeled on the North American Free Trade Agreement passed 12 years ago that established free trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Critics contend CAFTA will cost U.S. jobs by making it easier for U.S. companies to relocate operations in Central America, where labor costs are lower. The White House argues the opposite, asserting it will bring jobs to the United States.
Bush contends the pact would be "good for American workers, good for our farmers and good for small businesses" and "help increase sales abroad and job creation at home."
The textile industry is divided on CAFTA.
Some are opposed because of an inherent mistrust of any free trade deal. Others say it will help the U.S. industry because it will help Central American manufacturers, who buy material and yarn from the United States. Chinese textiles, by contrast, have little or no U.S. content.
CAFTA would further open a market of 44 million people by eliminating trade barriers to U.S. manufactured and farm goods, protecting trademarks and other intellectual property and establishing legal frameworks for U.S. investment. Last year the region purchased about $15 billion worth of U.S. goods.
Many Democrats argue that inadequate worker rights provisions in the agreement will lead to labor abuses. It is also opposed by lawmakers from sugar beet and sugar cane-growing areas, and others who link free trade to America's soaring trade deficits.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the fact that GOP House leaders haven't yet brought the bill up could be a sign that it lacks the votes.
"I can't really speak with authority on the number of Republican votes that are 'no' on CAFTA, but I hear that it is a significant number," she told reporters. "I know that there are only a small number of Democrats who would be supporting it, so I think they are in trouble on CAFTA."
Doubtful, for one thing. For another, what would that have to do with CAFTA? The job drain here in NC was caused by textile companies moving offshore to take advantage of cheap labor. If anything in the way of raw cloth goes from these mills to Central America, it is not being sold to a Central American concern, it is likely being shipped to a subsidiary or to another American company that has moved its operations there.
LOLOL!!!! Unless Gaston Community College has gotten any bigger this will be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It's down on 321 towards Dallas. Unless he's going to that one building textile college in Belmont. Hey, maybe he'll stop by Long Creek Fish Fry for lunch. Sorry, but I just can't explain how funny this is going to be.
"I would trade with them rather than with China that is alraedy threatening us with a nuke bomb."
If this were a choice of either-or, I'd agree with you. It's not a choice, though.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
You're not from this zipcode, are you?
NC exported 1.7 billion dollars' worth of goods to the CAFTA-DR region in 2004. I'm sure a good portion of that was textiles.
No breadlines in my zip code, sorry.
translation - thank you"Mi-kha-el"
"These treaties are like EU; I have a bad feeling about this. I have a feeling US is selling it short. Please forgive me for I am still trying to understand what this whole treaty is all about. If I am wrong; for which I am probably wrong; it seems like deejay vu all over again. I hope this works well for US economy, though reading through this thread I am in doubt."thank you all
"You're not from this zipcode, are you?"
No, he's just having visions and spinning yarns about the international economic promised land from on high. Us yokels who actually have to contend with the aftermath are mere distractions.
"deejay vu"
A broken record, LOL.
"I have really bad feeling about this"thank you"Blackie"
Yarn is a raw-material, right?
:}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}thank you"RegulatorCountry"
Sara ~ being Vigilant is very important!
Well if CAFTA is passed, that's 1.7 billion dollars' worth of goods that NC will have to import instead.
So the total loss to their economy will be 3.4 billion.
"Sara ~ being Vigilant is very important!"TOTAL TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!
New Economics, or merely New Math?
I would like for someone in the government to put the country first for a change.
All the internationalist talk doesn't work with me, to many of my friends and family got outsourced. We have destroyed our industrial base, and are in a much weaker position because of it.
:):):)
Our elites have never had to sit there and wonder how they were going to keep a roof over their family's heads because their jobs are being outsourced. I had that experience for half of last year. There fore, they (the elites) can indulge their Free Trade fantasies.
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