Free Republic

Congress is likely to vote on whether to approve the Central American Free Trade Agreement before the end of the month. On Friday, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called CAFTA the “big ticket” item on the House agenda next week, which is strongly backed by President Bush. Proponents argue CAFTA will promote trade and help some local businesses, especially farmers in West Virginia. Critics point to the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed by President Clinton in 1993, which eliminated many trade barriers with Mexico and Canada and ended up costing Americans more than a million jobs. “I just...

Puts & Calls / NO on Cafta, say Kevin L. Kearns and Alan Tonelson, who warn it exploits the weak Sunday, July 24, 2005 By Kevin L. Kearns and Alan Tonelson China's attempt to take over the U.S. oil company Unocal is a major test for Congress on Sino-American relations. Congress' answer so far -- harsh but toothless resolutions, hearing after hearing, and a tight focus on the narrow complaints of the rival Unocal bidder, Chevron -- deserves an "incomplete" at best. The state-owned Chinese oil firm CNOOC's heavily subsidized bid for Unocal should be blocked, both to limit the...

Decades ago a woman whose in-laws were religiously conservative Mennonite people told me this funny story. The grandmother cooked noon dinner every day for her husband, their adult sons and all the farmhands. Since the farm was mostly worked by the muscle power of either men or horses, those hard-working men were monumental eaters. The grandmother roasted, boiled, whipped and baked walloping amounts of home-canned vegetables, mashed potatoes, big servings of meat, heavy desserts. My friend was very surprised the day she walked into the grandmother's traditional farm kitchen - and there was a brand-new microwave oven. (This was in...

The Bush administration's free-trade agreement with Central America would cost taxpayers $50 million a year in loan forfeitures by sugar farmers, the Congressional Budget Office says. An administration official said Thursday that the analysis was unrealistic and that there would be virtually no cost under sugar provisions in the deal. The CBO released its estimate as House leaders planned for a vote next week on the Central America Free Trade Agreement. It would remove or lower trade barriers with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and he Dominican Republic. Overall, CAFTA would cost the U.S. about $4.4 billion over...

Gov. Jeb Bush Wednesday morning welcomed trade representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States as they gathered in Miami to negotiate the 11th round of the U.S.-Andean Free Trade Agreement. Nearly 1,000 delegates from throughout the Andean Region and the United States are to take part in the weeklong activities, expected to last through July 22. The Greater Miami Visitors and Conventions Bureau estimated the economic impact of the meeting at $1.5 million. The city has known it would host the event since it was chosen for the honor during the Miami Free Trade Area of the Americas...

TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- "CAFTA is NAFTA on steroids," said Kent Snyder, executive director of The Liberty Committee, a group whose motto is "Political Action From Principle." Affiliated with congressional representative Ron Paul, R-Texas -- who also opposes the Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic -- the committee holds that CAFTA-DR, like the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement isn't really about true free trade; it's about global managed trade. "Think about it," Snyder said. "Why does it take over 1,000 pages to define free trade?" In administrative works for several years CAFTA would create a NAFTA-like free trade zone...

Congress will soon take up the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which many see as an extension of NAFTA and a precursor to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas that would convert all of North and South America into one integrated market. Opinions about CAFTA's impact on the regional economy vary widely among members of Congress based largely on what the agreement will do for their constituents. But in the rush to highlight who wins and who loses when these trade barriers come down, almost everyone has overlooked the troubling non-trade provisions that are tucked into the voluminous...

CAFTA, the “Central American Free Trade Agreement” is being sold as a “free trade agreement” between the US and several nations in the Central American region. What is it and what does it matter to you? CAFTA is really not about “free trade.” “Free trade” is the bait. The hook, the catch, is regional government. Free trade is really unregulated, unimpeded trade. This is not what CAFTA is about. CAFTA will increase trade regulation between the US and Central America, not decrease it. Take a look at the hundreds of pages of regulations listed in the CAFTA charter. This is...

June 21, 2005 Dear Mr. President: We the undersigned represent companies and industries that have made an outsized contribution to America’s national security and prosperity. We are a critical part of America’s domestic manufacturing base. Our enterprises support a large segment of the broad middle class, one of America’s singular economic and political achievements. Today our companies in particular and the nation’s middle class in general are under constant attack from predatory foreign trade practices. Our companies and industries still make most of their products in the United States, ensuring that our revenues flow to American working families in the...

U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA) today called on fellow House Members to closely examine the system of settling all trade and immigration disputes under CAFTA, as a violation of American legal principles and a kangaroo court system stacked against the United States. In the event that Central American governments' understanding of CAFTA immigration provisions are different than what the Bush Administration is now telling Congress, it would be an international tribunal set up under CAFTA and staffed by a panel of three "judges" that would settle the dispute. CAFTA rules under Article 20.9 dictate that the tribunal consists of two...

July 13, 2005 Will the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) finally force you to get a doctor's prescription just to buy vitamin C, or E, or other dietary supplements you currently pick up "over the counter" in America? Powerful special interests are banking on it. Since 1995, Big Medicine has spent billions of dollars trying to get Washington to regulate your dietary supplements just as European governments do. So far, that effort has failed in America. But you may lose the battle for health freedom if CAFTA entangles the U.S. in Europe's infamous Codex Alimentarius (Codex). And if you...

The Labor Department kept secret for more than a year government studies that supported Democratic opponents of the Bush administration's new Central American trade deal, internal documents show. The studies, paid for by the department, concluded that several countries the administration wants to be granted free-trade status have poor working conditions and fail to protect workers' rights. The agency dismissed the conclusions as inaccurate and biased, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press. "In practice, labor laws on the books in Central America are not sufficient to deter employers from violations, as actual sanctions for violations of the law...

A Senate committee on Wednesday approved a trade agreement with Latin American nations, moving Congress a step closer to a decision on an accord that may have minimal effects on the U.S. economy but is of considerable political import to the Bush administration. The Finance Committee approved the agreement by a voice vote, although it was closely divided on the issue. The bill now goes to the full Senate for a vote as early as this week. Passage in the Senate, traditionally more sympathetic to trade agreements, could give the measure some momentum in the House, where there is stiffer...

The United States and its North American neighbors say they will set up a trusted traveler scheme for the whole continent by 2008, and will this year develop a plan to respond together to major terror attacks and other incidents. Trusted traveler programs enable people who provide biometric personal data -- like fingerprints or iris scans -- pay a fee and submit to background checks to use special travel lanes at border crossings. The idea is to speed processing for those travelers not thought security risks, and whose identity can be verified biometrically. A Department of Homeland Security statement Monday...

Free Trade: Rep. James Moran (news, bio, voting record) leans left and serves a large Salvadoran-American constituency. He's also a serious man who recognizes a growing potential for instability and conflict in the Americas.The Democrat from Virginia supports the Central America Free Trade Agreement. Unlike most in his party, Moran knows this isn't "Bush's" treaty. It's America's long-term interest no matter who's in office 10 years from now. It's about much more than just trade. From his point of view, it's something very unlike what Democrats see as the Bush approach to national security. Rather than a cold war, a...

Microsoft plans to make Really Simple Syndication a whole lot simpler. Really. The software maker said on Friday that it will build support for RSS into the next version of Internet Explorer, as well as into Longhorn, the Windows update scheduled to arrive next year. "We really think that RSS is going to be key to how people use the Internet in the future," said Gary Schare, a director of strategic product management for Microsoft's Windows unit. "Because of that we are betting really big on RSS in Longhorn by integrating RSS throughout the operating system." Most typically, RSS is...

AMSTERDAM — Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk has ordered three imams accused of being a threat to public order and national security to get out of the Netherlands. The trio have been accused of preaching a militant anti-western message at Al Fourkaan mosque in Eindhoven and allowing young people to be recruited for Jihad. They will be expelled if they do not leave the country voluntarily, Verdonk has vowed. She has given them a month in which they can challenge her order but they cannot stay in the Netherlands pending the outcome of any appeal. Lawyer Marq Wijngaarden is...

On Monday, Ismail Amin, president of the umbrella association of Zurich’s Islamic organisations, said that a study carried out by the local university showed Muslims are portrayed negatively in three quarters of Swiss media reports about their community. "We decided to publish this charter to fight against prejudice and misrepresentations," he added. Amin also pointed out that politics is harming Switzerland’s Muslims. He said some political parties are using fear of Islam as an electoral tool, as recently as the vote on the Schengen and Dublin agreements with the European Union on security and asylum. The document contains ten chapters....

NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV ONCE COMMENTED WRYLY that the only trouble with free elections is that you never know who's going to win. The old shoe-banger's words have been echoing around Europe these last few weeks, as the continent prepares for a democratic exercise that could alter the entire political construct and direction of Europe. Nobody has a clue what is going to happen. And European leaders are as terrified of voters as the ever-smiling Khrushchev was.The occasion is not strictly an election, but a referendum, or a whole series of them, beginning Sunday, May 29, in France, on whether or not...

IDB YOUTH TO HOLD VIRTUAL FORUM ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP DURING MAY IN PREPARATION FOR FOURTH SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS Young Entrepreneurs of the Americas: Forum for the Participation of Civil Society The Inter-American Development Bank will hold a series of virtual forums May 2-27 to promote a wide dialogue on the concerns of young entrepreneurs and business people have related to employment in Latin America and the Caribbean.All young people who would like to discuss and make recommendations on employment, competitiveness, business environments, education, technology, leadership, good citizenship, and democracy are welcome to participate. Members of the IDB Youth Network can...