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CIS
Boulevard Universitario #4
Colonia El Roble
San Salvador, El Salvador
Centroamérica

Tel/FAX: +503 226-2623

cis_elsalvador@yahoo.com

U.S. - Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) negotiations in Houston Texas. Call your elected officials and say NO to CAFTA!

October 21, 2003

On Monday October 20, the United States and Central Ameican governments convened in Houston, Texas for the eighth round of negotiations for the U.S. - Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), known in Spanish as the Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC). The meetings will run until Friday, October 24.

Opponents of the trade agreement are mobilizing all over North and Central America. In addition to those gathered in Houston, thousands rallied in the streets of San Salvador on October 20 to protest the damage that CAFTA will visit on the national economy. On the same day trade union members and other representatives of civil society gathered in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose to voice their opposition to the trade agreement.

CAFTA is being sold in Central America and the United States as a means of promoting sustainable development, social equality, and democracy. The record to date on free trade agreements between economies of drastically different scale, however, suggests otherwise.

Perspective on this matter is largely informed by the index used to measure prosperity. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for example, initially produced thousands of manufacturing jobs along the U.S.-Mexico border. Since the signing of NAFTA, however, the real minimum wage in Mexico has dropped 23%, and manufacturing wages are down 12%. Furthermore, recent ten-year assessments of the trade agreement show that there has been a net loss of jobs in Mexico. (Interhemispheric Resource Center, 6-10-03)

NAFTA has also created a crisis in Mexico’s countryside. An estimated 15 million small farmers have had to sell or abandon their land because of an influx of susidized U.S. produce. (Counterpunch Magazine, 9-12-02) A similar phenomenon has been apparent in El Salvador. The period between 1990 and 2001 saw both a reduction in the domestic cultivation of staple foods (such as rice, beans and corn­­) as well as an increase in the imporation of these same products.

The Mexican experience under NAFTA does not bode well for Central America under CAFTA. According to Armando Flores, Director of the Salvodoran NGO Committee in Defense of the Consumer (CDC), “CAFTA in its current form is even more radical than NAFTA.”

Foreign investment could indeed prove beneficial for Central America, but the conditions under which such investment is arranged should not give inordinate power to corporations. The citizens of Central American countries have a right to determine the conditions under which they labor, as well as the the treatment of their natural environment. CAFTA does not allow for this. The trade agreement sets up a fundamentally undemocratic structure by subsuming all national laws under those codified in the trade agreement.

The CIS is calling on all supporters of justice and democracy to stand in solidarity with those protesting in Houston, San Salvador, San Jose, and all over North and Central America. We are asking U.S. citizens to contact their elected officials, and for citizens of all other countries to contact U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. Tell them that you are aware of the damage that this agreement will visit on Central American econmies. We ask that everyone send a fax or email everyday this week.

U.S. Citizens, your congressional representatives should know your feelings regarding this issue, as their vote will ultimately decide whether the United States agrees to join CAFTA. You can find contact information for your Representatives and Senators at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

Citizens of all other countries contact U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick at:

United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20508
United States of America
1-888-473-USTR (8787)
contactustr@ustr.gov

More information about CAFTA is available from the following resources:

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