The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)- includes Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Republic-is the biggest free trade agreement Congress has considered in more than 10 years. Unless we can turn this flawed approach to trade around, agreements like CAFTA will put more workers out of a job, jeopardize small farmers, threaten the environment, reduce access to life-saving medicines and stiffles democracy.
CAFTA is modeled after the failed North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), expanding the devastation of rural communities to Central America and the Dominican Republic. We believe that all trade agreement should protect food sovereignty and promote our values of fair trade not free trade.
If implemented, CAFTA would insure the followings: 1) Lead tomore imported food entering the United States, which is now poised to become a net food importer for the first year since 1954. 2) Exacerbate the difficulties of minority farmers and farmworkers in the U.S. 3) Limit the right of all participating countries to implement measures to ensure that food traveling across borders is safe and meets domestic food safety standards. 4) CAFTA's lack of labor and environmental standards will encourage multi-national corporations to move operations in search of cheaper production costs, driving down farm, processing, and manufacturing wages. 5) Subject all participating nations to abide by court decisions of secretive international tribunals. 6) Worsen the U.S. trade deficit, over the last year the U.S. trade deficit increased to a record high $617 billion: trade with NAFTA partners represented 17% of that deficit.For more background, please go to our website
http://www.ruralco.org
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