Official: CAFTA would hurt Mexico industry

[Judi Lynn]

Associated Press Writer

Official: CAFTA would hurt Mexico industry

AUG. 17 4:41 P.M. ET Mexico's assembly-for-export industry, which has struggled to compete with China, will likely be hurt further by the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement, officials said Wednesday.

Enrique Castro, president of Mexico's maquiladora association, said the new trade agreement - still awaiting final approval - would likely affect Mexico's textile industry the most.

Some companies may prefer to move their factories to Central America, which generally has cheaper labor than Mexico and a growing clothing industry, he said at a news conference.
(snip)

The trade pact - which includes the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic - would eliminate trade barriers and open the region wider to U.S. goods and services. It would also lower obstacles to investment and strengthen protections for intellectual property.
(snip/...)

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8C1Q2480.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. that is the plan

[Kipling]

2. Right wingers don't care about their own country's workers.

Let alone foreigners.

[Kikosexy2]

3. Which means...

more illegal immigration into the U.S. and more griping...but this time the griping should be aimed at Chimpie and the Repugs.

[whosinpower]

4. If it is anything like Nafta

Then beware workers on BOTH sides of the fence. These sorts of trade agreements are great for the multinational corporations....but they SUCK big time for the labor markets.......

[Demonaut]

5. one llama or two

[Darranar]

6. CAFTA is bad news for all workers that are part of it...

It empowers the ruling class and forces workers to compete against each other.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Yup, and employers have done that whenever possible

Back in the 1980s, I had a temp job at a light assembly plant. Not only were the working conditions poor (nasty stuff floating in the air and no protective gear, 20 minutes for lunch and one ten-minute coffee break in an eight-hour day, etc.), but the bulletin board near the time clock had a blow-up of a want ad from a similar company, offering jobs for $4.00 an hour. I don't know how much the workers at this company made, since I was a temp, but the owners had put up a sign next to the want ad saying, "This is what we're competing against." Meaning, I suppose, 'Don't even think about asking for a raise.'"

In New Haven, Connecticut, Yale's clerical workers were paid so poorly that many of them qualified for food stamps. Because Yale, the largest employer, paid peanuts, wages for clerical workers anywhere in New Haven were lower than in the rest of Connecticut.

(When asked about the poor pay, then-Yale president Kingman Brewster said, "If they want more money they should get better jobs.")

[Blaq Dem]

8. Mexico not included?????

I thought CAFTA included Mexico. Interesting. I guess it would make sense since the Mexicans have to cross over to the US for jobs anyway.

I wonder how long illegal immigrants will continue to work in such piss-poor conditions here in America. I'm sure their children and children's children aren't going to put up with it through eternity. Sooner or later, they'll want to go to college and maybe even become president one day. I can't wait for them to rise up. Then these greedy republicans will be looking very stupid.