Posted on 05/13/2005 10:00:03 AM PDT by FlyLow
The Bush administration is planning to submit CAFTA — the Central America Free Trade Agreement — to the Congress for approval. Democrats and labor unions are indicating their usual opposition, and a fight reminiscent of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) battle over trade with Mexico in the early '90s seems about to begin.
But the battle comes at a critical time for the political parties, since the Hispanic vote has come dramatically into play in the recent presidential election. While Al Gore beat Bush by 65-35 percent among Hispanics, Kerry won by only 55-45. Hispanics cast 10 million votes in 2004, so the gains Bush made over his 2000 vote share amount to a 2 million vote swing in his favor. Since Bush won by only 3.1 million votes in 2004, the importance of the Latino vote is apparent.
CAFTA is an attempt to bring to the poverty-stricken countries of Central America the benefits of free trade with the colossus of the north. These nations are among the world's poorest, and free trade would be a tremendous boon to their economies.
NAFTA has hurt them, since it has given Mexico a competitive advantage over its neighbors. Why build a factory in Guatemala and pay tariffs to import your products to the United States when you can build it next door in Mexico and import without levies or duties?
Those who oppose illegal immigration cannot have it both ways. Either you alleviate poverty in Central America and encourage would-be immigrants to stay home and share in the increasing wealth or you keep them in poverty and watch as they flock over our borders.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Nothing good will come of this. As long as our current Government pursues free trade, our country will continue the downward slide into a 3rd world country.
There is no reason to oppose CAFTA since it's so heavily in our favor.
LOL. At the rate we are sliding downward (economically), we'll become a Third World country, well, never.
Fair enough.
Read the text of CAFTA and then come back to tell us what you don't like about it.
No CAFTA, NAFTA, GATT, or any of this 15000 page "free" trade documents.
Gee, tough choice for the RATS, but I'm guessing they'll side with the guys who give them the most illegal money, and that would be the unions.
Closed shops, and the special small business tax here needs to go.
Easy one for me since I am an American with Hispanic roots. I hate unions!.. and I don't see that the commerce with this block of poor countries will hurt us really. Look at it another way, why only Mexico should get all the benefits of free trade? Either the entire block gets it or none.
It's not like Mexico is such a great neighbor, is it?
That's right -- and CAFTA will fail if it becomes joined in the public mind to support for illegal immigration. The Bush administration and national GOP are suffering substantial damage among their base due to support for illegal and excessive immigration. CAFTA may become one of the casualties.
Good headline.
Only in the minds of a few people. If so many people were obsessed with a single issue than it would have showed up in the 2004 election. Not one single poll had it listed as a high priority issue with voters. The President won, the Republican Party won, the Constitution Party didn't get a larger percentage of voters, and Tancredo didn't get enough write in votes to be a blip on the radar.
Correct. Any American /Western industry enjoys remarkable competitive advantages (technology, acess to capital, a stable currency, a stable political system, excellent infrastructure, the rule of law) BUT are always going to get hosed on wages compared with any poorer country that somehow makes the same product cheaper or better.
If an industry is uncompetitive then eventually it must adapt or die. Protecting it with tariffs makes an industry into a form of welfare - the taxpayers are subsidising the industries inability to make a profit.
This is the unpalatable part of free trade: I have to change what I do for a living, or how I do it, in order to compete. I can't just wait for a government hand-out.
But the huge advantage of free trade is how much it increases the wealth of both trade-partners. Suddenly both countries have more goods and/or money, and so can afford to hire people for other projects. Many western countries seem to the casual observer to have massive service industries and no great manufacturing base. This is because they are simply trading for cheap food, cheap furniture, cheap cars etc. If people in (say) Britain had to rely on home-produced goods then the country would be immeasurably poorer, even if we had the factories and farms to produce every item ourselves..
You hit the nail on the head!
Not enough to convince you. Then, strip out quarterly dollars paid for oil imports in our nations trade deficit. Plot those remaining dollars of the trade deficit as a % of the GDP against the % Change (Growth) in GDP. Look at the slopes of the lines.
What do you see as far as how well NAFTA and the PAC Rim trade agreement has helped the US overall?
Guess I just stupid and see something our politicians do not.
Have a great weekend all!
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