In your scenarios as outlined...no problemo.
Bosch came into North Carolina some time ago....way before CAFTA even was thought of...Honda came into PA back in the seventies. We certainly don't need CAFTA to get foreign companies in here. Maybe we need a trade agreement like CAFTA to get our companies in there...why I don't know...it wasn't needed before in other countries.
Foreign companies in the US have always employed Americans...their products to be sold primarily HERE. Employment increased...and the local economies benefited. I would have preferred that American companies were there...but it was better than no jobs at all.
The reciprocal arrangement would work fine in Central America too...local workers hired there by American companies to make products or services for consumption THERE. That is what Ford and GM did in Europe for decades...again without CAFTA or its equivalent.
But this traditional definition of trade is not how things operate in this day and age...you know it...I know it. This is the age of offshoring of labor...and mass migrations of people into the US.
There should be more to this agreement than just the scenarios you describe...or else the guys who wrote this agreement padded it with thousands of pages of legalese which is superfluous.
I find the fact that it apparently DOESNT cover services definition in detail on the American consumption side...given the American publics unease on jobs to be incredible in itself...or perhaps a red flag. Thus my desire to SEE the language in question for myself...but this is not apparently a desirable thing to do. Hope some of our reps have seen it and understand it.
Some might like to pigeonhole me and others into some sort of fringe Luddite / socialist category...just for questioning this treaty...when nothing could be further from the truth. Hell....some democrats are lining up to support this treaty...so much for being a benchmark on conservative credentials.
What I cant understand is the animosity displayed towards people who oppose the treaty but only want the best for American interests. After all...these people are not MOVEON calling for the overthrow of the US.
BTW...our immigration RULES may not change by this agreement ...does the ENFORCEMENT of them also stay the same? How about limits on guest workers...stay the same also?
Maybe we need a trade agreement like CAFTA to get our companies in there...why I don't know...it wasn't needed before in other countries. Many of these CAFTA countries had government monopolies in various sectors. The telephone company, for example. Now American companies can enter the cellphone business in that growing market and compete.
But CAFTA does not change anyone's immigration rules or the way they enforce them. So, if Cingular wants to build a cellphone network in Costa Rica, they can't send a bunch of Americans down to build it or run it because Costa Rica has strict rules about that. An American can open his own self-employed business there, but you can't go work for a company unless a showing is made that no Costa Rican citizen is able to do that job.
So Cingular, if it wishes to enter that market, will be hiring Costa Ricans to run it.