CAFTA
One of the many presents that the Congress has given the president this term is the passage of CAFTA. Not that it was easy, no, not by a long shot. Still, by keeping the voting open for hours in the Senate, the Senate leadership managed to squeak one by before the August recess.
Most Americans don't have a clue just what this new "free trade" agreement with Central America actually involves. I suspect that most of us assume that it's a lot like NAFTA (even the name sounds the same), but then most people still don't fully comprehend even the broadest outlines of that agreement either. Ross Perot tried to explain it while campaigning for president, but Ross being Ross, he just wasn't real specific.
I guess most Americans just aren't really well educated when it comes to economics. I suppose it would help if the press would help us out once in a while, but even Paul Krugman, the only economics journalist whom I can understand was a bit reticent on this topic.
Still, I suppose we're not alone in this boat. El Salvador's Diario Co Latino suggests the same thing happening in Central America.
Independent of whether the voting was hard fought, a question that now is without significance, the United States voted in favor of the Free Trade Agreement [CAFTA] with the isthmus of Central America, under which commerce, supposedly in both directions, is strengthened.
According to those favoring the process - the government and a good portion of the business community - the trade agreement treaty is the only way to extricate the country from poverty, and, they say, it will bring an influx of foreign investment, which will reduce unemployment.
Those that that were opposed to the signing of the treaty, guarantee that the only beneficiaries of the treaty will be the large transnational corporations and some Salvadoran companies that, thanks to their strategic alliances and economic power, will be able to play by the rules of the game that the treaty presupposes.
And the fact is that, despite the declaration of the President of the Republic [Oscar Berger] that “all Salvadorians should celebrate,” this is quite difficult because the population never knew just what was being negotiated.
On the other hand, the government has never been clear in defining how the common Salvadoran or small businesses, to mention a few, will be benefited. That is to say, today, now that everything is completed, all we have left is to wait and hope - passively or actively.
Yup. That's what I thought, too.
Most Americans don't have a clue just what this new "free trade" agreement with Central America actually involves. I suspect that most of us assume that it's a lot like NAFTA (even the name sounds the same), but then most people still don't fully comprehend even the broadest outlines of that agreement either. Ross Perot tried to explain it while campaigning for president, but Ross being Ross, he just wasn't real specific.
I guess most Americans just aren't really well educated when it comes to economics. I suppose it would help if the press would help us out once in a while, but even Paul Krugman, the only economics journalist whom I can understand was a bit reticent on this topic.
Still, I suppose we're not alone in this boat. El Salvador's Diario Co Latino suggests the same thing happening in Central America.
Independent of whether the voting was hard fought, a question that now is without significance, the United States voted in favor of the Free Trade Agreement [CAFTA] with the isthmus of Central America, under which commerce, supposedly in both directions, is strengthened.
According to those favoring the process - the government and a good portion of the business community - the trade agreement treaty is the only way to extricate the country from poverty, and, they say, it will bring an influx of foreign investment, which will reduce unemployment.
Those that that were opposed to the signing of the treaty, guarantee that the only beneficiaries of the treaty will be the large transnational corporations and some Salvadoran companies that, thanks to their strategic alliances and economic power, will be able to play by the rules of the game that the treaty presupposes.
And the fact is that, despite the declaration of the President of the Republic [Oscar Berger] that “all Salvadorians should celebrate,” this is quite difficult because the population never knew just what was being negotiated.
On the other hand, the government has never been clear in defining how the common Salvadoran or small businesses, to mention a few, will be benefited. That is to say, today, now that everything is completed, all we have left is to wait and hope - passively or actively.
Yup. That's what I thought, too.
posted by Diane at 4:30 AM
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