U.S. House to Decide on CAFTA
After Congressional Recess Ends
Alex Meneses Miyashita     [Photo]

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up the Central America Free Trade Agreement legislation after the July 4 congressional recess ends next week.

The U.S. Senate voted June 30 54-45 for the measure.

Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) voted against the proposal, saying the pact offers no protections to U.S. farmers and ranchers. He also said, "Even under the most optimistic scenario when this agreement is fully implemented, U.S. world exports are expected to increase by a minuscule amount, if at all, to this region."

His Republican colleague, Sen. Mel Martínez of Florida, voted for it.

"(CAFTA) increases our access to a market of 40 million individuals and puts us in a position to better compete in the global economy," he said, adding that it would also provide economic and democratic stability to Central America and the Dominican Republic.

The U.S. Senate voted for the pact after extensive lobbying by the White House.

In the House, it passed the Ways and Means Committee by a 24-11 vote June 30, also paving the way to reach the floor after the recess.

"Step by step, we're making good progress and building momentum for its successful passage," U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said in a statement following a June 29 Senate Finance Committee vote which helped pave the way for its consideration by the full Senate.

But CAFTA still faces an uphill battle on the House floor. Opposition by Democrats who claim the deal's labor standards are poor, as well as several Republicans who are concerned with issues raised by the U.S. sugar industry, could stop the deal in the lower chamber.

Fourteen members of the all-Democrat Congressional Hispanic Caucus have taken positions against CAFTA. Four others are undecided, and only one, Rep. Henry Cuéllar (D-Texas), favors it. Members of the all-Republican Congressional Hispanic Conference support the pact.

Other opponents, such as the Stop CAFTA Coalition, comprised of environmental, religious and trade justice groups, claim that they will use the recess to spread the message of the damaging effects this trade deal would have on U.S., Central American and Dominican workers.

Opponents also warn of the failures of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), who voted for NAFTA in 1993 and now doesn't support CAFTA, claims the growing trade deficit with Mexico and Canada has cost the United States nearly one million jobs.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who has supported virtually every trade deal in his 20-plus years in the Senate, including NAFTA, called CAFTA a step backward in the standards applied to U.S. workers. The former presidential candidate told Weekly Report that even though he voted for NAFTA, he's argued for years to improve the labor standards in the agreement.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement, "the fact is that in many cases, Latinos bear the consequences of expanded trade, because they are concentrated in industries that lose out with trade agreements."

But Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the CATO Institute, told Weekly Report, "trade and the development that it brings is the best way to raise labor and environmental standards."

He opined that although CAFTA would not have a significant impact on the economy of the United States, it would be an important foreign policy initiative.

Supporters have also pointed out that the six Central American countries in the agreement, along with the Dominican Republic represent the second largest export market for the United States in Latin America. While imports from these countries arrive duty-free, CAFTA would eliminate burdensome trade barriers for U.S. exports to Central America, they say.

CAFTA was signed last year with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The White House only recently submitted CAFTA to Congress (June 23), as the Bush administration pushed to build support for it.

Congress had 90 days from that date to act on it.

(Alex Meneses Miyashita is a reporter with Hispanic Link Weekly Report. E-mail him at alex@hispaniclink.org)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service
07/10/05
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