The Central American Free Trade Agreement (known as CAFTA) is an expansion of NAFTA to five Central American nations (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua), and the Dominican Republic. It was signed May 28, 2004, and passed through the U.S. House of Representatives by one vote in the middle of the night by the U.S. Congress on July 27, 2005. El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic have also approved the agreement. Costa Rica has yet to vote on the agreement.

CAFTA is a piece in the FTAA jigsaw puzzle, and is based on the same failed neoliberal NAFTA model, which has caused the "race to the bottom" in labor and environmental standards and promotes privatization and deregulation of key public services.

(In fact, one of the consequences by signing the NAFTA was that ONE million of mexican employees became fired, and then, that million of unemployed mexicans went illegaly to USA)

Due to strong resistance by several of the CAFTA countries’ parliaments who, when confronted by the reality of having to make the far-reaching changes to public health and other domestic laws required by the agreement are reluctant to actually implement the deal, the Bush administration was forced to delay the planned Jan. 1, 2006 implementation.

Im totally disagree by two reasons:

1-Corporations are going to arrive to the smalls countries and they are going to compete with the small business, becoming impossible to give a proper competition between them.

2- The constitution become null if the CAFTA is aproved, because international treaties have priority, so legal procedures within the constitution become useless.

So, what is your position about the CAFTA, please vote.

External links:
CAFTA definition by Wikipedia
United States Department of Agriculture
Costa Rica Documentary about CAFTA (IN SPANISH)

 

 

 

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