Free Republic

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina - Twenty-nine countries in favor of a planned Free Trade Area of the Americas may establish it without the participation of five dissenting countries, Mexican President Vicente Fox said Friday. Fox said these pro-FTAA countries - which include the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Chile - are discussing an alternative agreement. The five dissenting nations include the four members of the South American trade group Mercosur - Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay - which have opposed plans to establish a deadline for relaunching FTAA talks, as well as Venezuela, which outright opposes the region-wide trade deal. Fox...

TALLAHASSEE - -- All Florida students in kindergarten through second grade would get mandatory Spanish lessons starting in 2007 under a new bill filed by state Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa. "More and more of our young people need to learn a second language," said Miller, the Senate minority leader. "We just thought that this was a good start for these young people." Some people like the idea but wonder about its practicality. Younger students "learn a foreign language without pain," said Dorothy Carregal, superintendent of foreign languages for Hillsborough schools. But the legislation, Senate Bill 522, doesn't say how schools...

Florida FTAA, Inc. is leading a delegation to the Private Sector Forum taking place in Buenos Aires, Argentina and preceding the IV Summit of the Americas "Creating Jobs to Address Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance" taking place in Mar del Plata November 4 and 5. The Private Sector Forum is endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the OAS General Secretariat. About 200 executives from the hemisphere will discuss the role of the private sector in the creation of jobs to fight poverty, the promotion of democratic governance and transparency, education and technological innovation as well as trade, infrastructure...

Because of its location, Texas is integral to the creation of the FTAA and the eventual merger of North and South America under a single regional government like the EU. A little more than two years ago, political allies of Texas Governor Rick Perry quietly passed legislation creating the "Trans-Texas Corridor" (TTC). With the connivance of a largely silent press, the most expensive project in the state's history became law with scant public notice. It's bad enough that the TTC will cost at least $185 billion, much of it derived from new toll taxes imposed on existing free roads. It's...

Costa Rican trade unions called on Monday for a one-day general strike next month to oppose ratification of a regional free-trade pact with the United States, which they fear could hurt standards of living. More than 200 unions and civic groups are expected to take part in the stoppage on Nov. 17, which seeks to pressure the Costa Rican Congress to reject the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, union leaders said. Costa Rica is the only Central American nation yet to ratify the agreement. It has been approved by the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and...

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has just let the cat out of the bag about what's really behind our trade agreements and security partnerships with the other North American countries. A 59-page CFR document spells out a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter.""Community" means integrating the United States with the corruption, socialism, poverty and population of Mexico and Canada. "Common perimeter" means wide-open U.S. borders between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. "Community" is sometimes called "space" but the CFR goal is clear: "a common...

Robert B. Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State United States Embassy Brasília, Brazil October 6, 2005 DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK:Okay, well thanks for taking the time to come by. Let me just make a few opening comments about the purpose of my visit and then we will just open it up to questions. This primarily is an opportunity for me to consult with a close and important partner of the United States. I've been to Brazil a number of times before, I obviously see Brazilian officials regularly Celso Amorim was in Washington just about a week ago. But it gives me an...

MAR DEL PLATA/BARILOCHE, ARGENTINA. 4-5 Nov 2005. The theme for the heads of state and government of the Western Hemisphere’s democracies at the Sixth Summit of the Americas is, "Creating Employment to Confront Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance." It sounds new, but it restates the aims of the Free Trade Area of the Americas – to create greater prosperity for nearly 800 million people in 34 countries of the hemisphere – a pact that has missed its Jan 1 2005 target date.The choice of the theme suggests that the summit will tackle issues that are holding up talks about the...

For decades, federal officials have ignored the pleas of American citizens to secure our borders against an immense, ongoing migration invasion that includes not only millions of “common variety” illegal aliens, but also drug traffickers, terrorists, and other violent criminals. Now, under the pretense of providing security, the Bush administration is adopting an outrageous policy that, in effect, does away with our borders with Mexico and Canada altogether. Regular readers of THE NEW AMERICAN know that this magazine has been warning that this direct assault on our nationhood was coming, that it is part and parcel of the NAFTA-CAFTA-FTAA process....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. JESUP --- Why the Central America Free Trade Agreement? Why should anyone want to integrate the United States with Mexico and Canada, and destroy everything we know and love? Our country is so different in freedom from other countries in the world. The Council on Foreign Relations has a 59-page document establishing a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a "common outer security perimeter." This plan calls for massive U.S. foreign aid to the other countries. It demands we implement "the...

A cornered economy Stagnant growth, higher costs, rising inflation, double-digit unemployment, reduced incomes, the threat of salary cuts and layoffs in the commonwealth government, and loss of confidence are backing Puerto Rico´s economy into a tight corner. Hold on to your wallets and pocketbooks because the cost of living and doing business in Puerto Rico is literally going through the roof and threatens to only get worse. The price of gasoline, water, electricity, food, medicine, tolls, and everything is on the rise. Everything that is, except for income. In a 2005 study of cities prepared by Mercer Human Resource Consulting,...

Arizona’s liberal governor, Janet Napolitano, declined an invitation for an interview on Sean Hannity’s radio program today. That led Hannity to remark that Napolitano “knows her days will be numbered if she doesn’t do something about the border invasion.” Later in today’s program, GOP governor candidate Don Goldwater did appear on the airwaves with Hannity. He said Napolitano obviously got the idea to declare four southern counties a disaster area from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who had just done the same thing next door. If Napolitano is wise, Goldwater said, she will “wake up from her wonderland” and protect...

A controversial plan to embed radio frequency identification chips in license plates in the United Kingdom also may be coming to the United States, experts told UPI's Wireless World. The so-called e-Plate, developed by the British firm Hills Numberplates, is a license plate that also transmits a vehicle's unique identification via encryption that can be read by a small detector, whose output can be used locally or communicated to a distant host. "RFID is all the rage these days," said Bradley Gross, chairman of Becker & Poliakoff, a law firm in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., "but my fear is that this...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. It began in 1994. All the attention was focused on the new WTO, emerging from the Uruguay round of GATT negotiations. Little attention was paid to the Summit of the Americas meeting in Miami. The assembled ministers agreed to create a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and that it would be completed by January, 2005, and would enter into force by December, 2005. For ten years, 34 governments have been conducting negotiating sessions throughout the Americas, fashioning a new trade agreement that will swallow up both NAFTA and CAFTA, and,...

Karen Krebbs had an armed escort while she was out nights last week at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. She's not a law-enforcement agent and she doesn't dabble in anything illegal. She's a conservation biologist with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, studying an endangered population of nectar-feeding bats. Researchers along Arizona's border these days must balance their desire to study wildlife in the Sonoran Desert - where the chance to observe long-protected desert-dwelling populations proves an irresistible lure - with a growing fear of theft by desperate border crossers or violence from drug and people smugglers. The fears are fueled by...

U.S. sovereignty slip-sliding away -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 6, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Henry Lamb -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com It began in 1994. All the attention was focused on the new WTO emerging from the Uruguay round of GATT negotiations. Little attention was paid to the Summit of the Americas meeting in Miami. The assembled ministers agreed to create a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas and that it would be completed by January 2005, entering into force by December 2005. For ten years, 34 governments have been conducting negotiating sessions throughout the Americas, fashioning a new trade agreement that...

Government and business leaders in Guatemala applauded the U.S. House of Representatives for its approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) early Thursday, saying it will bring more jobs and foreign investment to the region. However, environmental and farmer organizations say the treaty will cause greater unemployment and more migration to the U.S. CAFTA will remove most tariffs from goods traded between the U.S., five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. It is expected to take force as early as January 1, 2006. The news brought mixed reactions in Guatemala, one of the six countries included in...

The House of Representatives today approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in a vote of 217 to 215. The vote is a major victory for President George Bush and the Republican House leadership. However, it comes at the expense of increased partisanship and mounting disarray in the conduct and management of U.S. trade policy. Before the treaty comes into effect, ratification by Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica is necessary, and this is not guaranteed. The congressional debate over CAFTA has proved the most inflamed and controversial since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. Economic...

When the North American Free Trade Agreement was being debated in 1993, the rhetoric from both the U.S. and Mexican governments was similarly emphatic. NAFTA would help deter migration by creating new jobs and prosperity in Mexico, they said. Several years later, NAFTA appears to have done just the opposite. While many Mexicans appreciate the elevated diplomatic status it has conferred upon their country, the trade pact has driven large numbers of farmers, small-business owners and laborers out of work. These people are left with few options but to seek a better life in the United States. NAFTA has helped...

CAFTA not merely about free trade By LIZA GRANDIA GUEST COLUMNIST At 2,400 pages, the Central America Free Trade Agreement isn't really about trade. Frankly, you don't need 2,400 pages to eliminate tariffs and regulations on exports and imports. But you might need 2,400 pages to smuggle through a new set of transnational corporate rights disguised by complicated legalese. I wonder how many in Congress will even bother to read this trade tome before voting? I recall in 1994 that only one senator, Republican Hank Brown of Colorado, accepted Ralph Nader's challenge to win $10,000 for charity by taking a...