Bush Signs CAFTA Into Law

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.newsnet5.com/money/4799093/detail.html

Bush Signs CAFTA Into Law
Signing Caps Bruising Battle, Close Vote

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush signed one of his administration's top priorities Tuesday, the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

The deal removes trade barriers with six countries and was narrowly approved by the House last week after a furious final round of lobbying by the administration.

The agreement, with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, removes trade barriers and opens up the region to U.S. goods and services.

It also takes steps to facilitate investment in the area and strengthens protections for intellectual property.

<</SNIP>>

[Deja Q]

1. A letter to America's jobs:

:hi:

See ya!

[sam sarrha]

7. is there an extra tax cut for coporations who send jobs to Central America

or maybe a Medal Of Freedom...:applause: :applause: :applause:

[krkaufman]

2. Not a word in that "article" commenting on CAFTA's downsides. n/t

[schultzee]

11. Of course they would not tell of the downside. Corporate PIGS

take all and American workers get Wal-Mart type jobs, and Central American and South American peasants continue to be impoverished and provide slave labor for the friends of the ((_)___ administration.

It a win win for a small minority and a big lose for many ordinary Americans who do not matter to the 666 crowd.

[depakid]

16. What do you expect- it's local "news"

Which is utterly worthless for anything other than misinformation (unless you want to know who's been shot or what's burned down).

[krkaufman]

23. Yep, just echoing the official WH press release.

Lazy, good-for-nothing chumps.

[UrbScotty]

3. CAFTA violates culture of life, says Catholics for Faithful Citizenship

http://www.catholicsforfaithfulcitizenship.org/PR070705.htm

A closer look at CAFTA shows this agreement works against a culture of life. CAFTA will jeopardize Central America’s farmers, threaten to destroy access to generic medicines, and place in danger habitats throughout Latin America. And if CAFTA follows in the legacy of NAFTA, the trade agreement it is modeled after, it will result in the outsourcing of American jobs.

The regulations that CAFTA also places on patent protections will prevent the nearly 300,000 people with HIV in Central America from accessing generic medications. AIDS advocates, according to the Kaiser Family Health Foundation, worry that CAFTA will limit compulsory licensing, a practice that allows governments to authorize themselves or a third party to make generic versions of patented products, including antiretrovirals. Under CAFTA, this generic manufacturing will be in jeopardy, while pharmaceutical corporations stand to reap a financial windfall from eliminating generic drugs.

Under CAFTA, corporations also have carte blanche when it comes to the environment, without accountability to the biodiversity of Central America – something that could spell disaster for millions of people, animals and plants in the region, according to a letter from a coalition of environmental groups circulated by Public Citizen, a Washington public interest organization. Meanwhile, four countries included in CAFTA are considered critical regions for their biodiversity.

And for U.S. citizens, CAFTA is likely to result in jobs outsourced to Central America. Public Citizen says that more than 400,000 jobs were outsourced to Mexico because of the NAFTA agreement, and many in the labor movement believe that CAFTA will have similar results. Tim Nesbitt, President of the Oregon AFL-CIO, said that outsourcing will increase with CAFTA because Central America offers an incentive to corporations – cheap labor.

[schultzee]

12. I hope more organizations speak the truth

[dArKeR]

4. Give us a SEVEN DEAD SMILE! Clap to our Sacrifice to the Christian GOD!

Let's celebrate! We need more American children's blood to appease our God!

&g=events/ts/080205cafta;_ylt=At9CBam6jHA1EqvfeOg_hSOMwfIE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3bGk2OHYzBHNlYwN0bXA-




Seven Marines Killed in Western Iraq
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050802/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Democrats are SUCKING PUSSYS! Our leaders should be holding up these pics of GOP leadership smiling in their left hand and in their right holding pics of our dead children!

Look at the pics of Lice in the above yahoo link series. I swear she's the daughter of Satan himself. Look at her eyes!

[Megahurtz]

6. Elch!

:puke:Those photos!

I can hardly stand to look at those people!

[schultzee]

15. Condi has eyes like a reptile.

[schultzee]

13. The 15 dem pigs who voted for this were sent to me by the AFLCIO

Perhaps they are now on the site. We should write letters to the traitors to the American farmer and salaried employee.

[HughBeaumont]

17. Condi: I only have eyes for my Husboss.

So many assholes, so few flamethrowers.

[GHOSTDANCER]

5. SLAVES!!! MUST USE MORE SLAVES!!!!!

<>

[earth mom]

8. No-NOT a close vote-a rigged vote is more like it!

:puke:

Did they ever allow those last 2 votes in? Hmm? Or do a recount? Goddamn thugs that's what they all are! :grr:

[warrens]

9. As usual, sleaze in the background (banned documents)

The Labor Dept. contracted for a study of labor conditions etc. concerning CAFTA. It didn't like the results, so it banned all distribution, took back all paper copies and ordered the contractor to never speak about the report.

Someone leaked part of it to AP, though.

http://wid.ap.org/documents/cafta/index.html

Now, today, it is being reported by AP that while they may have got CAFTA through, the resentments the Bushies created stomping on congressmen dooms any future trade agreements.

[Orion The Hunter]

10. And for CAFTA, here are the (supposed) winners and losers:

Courtesy of Associated Press at Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050730/ap_on_bi_ge/cafta_winners_losers_summary_box_1

TRADE PACT: The Central American Free Trade Agreement eliminates trade barriers between the United States and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

CAFTA WINNERS: U.S. farmers and manufacturers hope to gain new sales in the region, particularly through exports of textiles and clothing, machinery, autos, and wheat and other grains.

CAFTA LOSERS: Sugar growers in the U.S. worry about new competition. Imports of processed sugar from the region are expected to increase by $113.2 million.


Not really sure how exactly American manufacturers intend to make money selling their goods to 3rd world countries....I mean I just do not see American autos and textiles doing all that well in Central America. But U.S. companies exporting jobs to those countries to save a buck, yeah I can see that happening...

[schultzee]

14. B.S....Guatamalan textiles are going to finish our remaining industry,

and we will have a larger deficit. A non-partisian study group said that this will create more of a trade deficit in the net effect, thus
the lose will ge greater than the gain.

[VegasWolf]

18. Bush is first US president that has to "make his X!" nt

[bvar22]

19. EACH and EVERY "Barrier to Trade" was created....

...to protect something valuable. "Trade Barriers" should be reassessed periodically, but the wholesale removal of "Trade Barriers" is very ill advised.


Some things are worth "PROTECTING"!!!

*The Environment

*The Safety of Workers

*The Ability of large segments of the population to EARN a DECENT LIVING

*The Cultural Heritage of a People

*Human Rights

*The National Security

*LABOR

Call ME a "Proud Protectionist"!

The above were discarded wholesale by the Republican Party and their Corporate financed co-conspirators in the Democratic Party (DLC).

[robcon]

20. Protectionism is a loser's game, IMO

Our domestic consumers lose from lack of competition and higher prices. Our exporters lose because they become less competitive overeas.

There are NEVER any winners - only losers in ther protectionism racket.

The only good justification for protectionism is national defense - we don't want to have to import our national defense needs from any countruy, and we don't want to export our national defense technology to some other countries.

[bvar22]

21. Gee, that's why the FDR economy sparked and sustained...

...the Greatest Economic Expansion that the World has ever seen, AND catalyzed the Explosion of the Middle Class in America!

The removal of "Barriers to Trade" under NAFTA has seriously damaged:
*the Working Class in the US AND Mexico,

*aggravated the trade deficit,

*is directly responsible for the wage and benefit decrease in the US.

*NAFTA is also directly responsible for serious environmental damage along the Mexican borderand

*Directly aggravated the Trade Deficit

NONE of the promised benefits of NAFTA have materialized!
NO markets have been opened up to US Made goods!

And the Removal of Protections in Mexico has been an absolute disaster (except for the very rich).

Each and Every item I cited as wrth protecting has suffered serious damage under NAFTA,
without ANY of the corresponding benefits theorized by the Free Traders. Don't agree with me?
Take a look at the REAL WORLD of the Removal of Trade Barriers:

The Mexican NAFTA disaster
http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy/ns04192001.cfm

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/04/28_cafta.html

http://bernie.house.gov/documents/opeds/20040127181128.asp

http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/nafta.htm


Sorry, but I look at reality, and not the glossy brochures printed by the Corporations condemning the Barriers to Trade....your opinion and theory hold weight only in the fantasy World.

"FREE TRADE" has become a holy mantra without supporting evidence used to END discussions. I believe that this is a cleverly crafted "meme" that has been successfully marketed by the Corporatists using our CorpoMedia propaganda network. Even John Kerry used it to end a discussion in the Primary Debates when asked about outsourcing.

Many proponents argue that FREE TRADE is INEVITABLE. You can't stop Free Trade! Globalization and the InterNet cannot be stopped!"
This is completely BOGUS BULLSHIT!!!.
Globalization is NOT some NEW THING that is a product of the InterNet. Globalization started when the first primitive man/woman gathered up the stone tools he/she had crafted, journeyed to the next cave, and traded them for some food. Globalization has been happening for thousands of Years and has NOTHING to do with the InterNet. The InterNet makes it possible to access information; it does NOT make it any easier or inevitable to trade goods and services. It does not even make it easier to transfer capital. Wire Transfers have been around for longer than 1/2 century.


The stated GOAL of the FREE TRADERS is to "Remove the Barriers to Trade!" What they fail to mention is that those "Barriers to Trade" were in EVERY case put there for a reason, and that reason is ALWAYS to protect something worthwhile. What the FREE TRADERS really want to do is remove ANY obstacle limiting the ability of their Corporation to increase PROFITS for the owners by any means possible.

The FREE TRADERS are always quick to brand someone a "PROTECTIONIST" if they dare to question the sacred IDOL of Free Trade. Some things are WORTH protecting. PROTECTIONISM is NOT necessarily a bad thing especially when protecting one's family, protecting the ability to earn a decent living for LARGE segments of a nations Workers, protecting the Environment, protecting the cultural assets of a civilization, or protecting a nations natural resources from predatory Corporations!!!

Take a look at the REAL WORLD.
Point out the emerging Consumer Class along the Mexican Border.
Show me the markets for American manufactured goods that have opened up in Mexico.
Until you can point to the REAL WORLD benefits of Free Trade , I'll stick with the PROVEN REAL WORLD benefits of regulated Trade!!!

Free Trade is an ENORMOUS Scam, and the facts back me up!

[Daphne08]

22. One day I'm going to seriously have a heart attack.

My anger is so great concerning this administration's betrayal of Americans. (I don't understand Clinton and NAFTA either.)

When I first heard of the conspiracy theories concerning Globalization and The New World Order (or whatever it's called), I laughed.

I'm now beginning to wonder.

Is that what ALL this is about? I mean, I used to watch "X-Files" never dreaming that a consortium of wealthy, powerful people might really be controlling our lives and our future.

That was fiction, or was it?

What will be the future of my children and my children's children?

Just thinking about it makes me ill.