CAFTA
Although resistance to a free trade deal with the United States is growing throughout Central America, social activists say the big battle will take place in Costa Rica, where opposition is focused on a proposal to open up telecommunications and insurance to foreign capital.
Contrary to the widespread notion, fundamental aspects of the FTA with the US include a number of areas that are highly comprehensive and have ramifications and implications that go way beyond simply regulating cross-border trade in goods.
This draft Environmental Cooperation Agreement (ECA) has been negotiated in the context of, but is separate from, the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement. This draft ECA represents the results of negotiations by delegations representing the Parties listed in the title below. This draft ECA is subject to further revision, and has not been signed by the Parties.
The free trade agreements that are being vigorously negotiated by the US are empowering corporations in a manner that places them at the top of a global hierarchy, matching their economic might with political rights that bypass processes of democratic decision making.
The attached letter, pressuring Costa Rica to resolve two disputes in favour of US investors, has been denounced as a blackmail by local activists.
Our Congressional representatives and Senators will be in their home districts from May 24 to 31. As U.S. citizens we need to hold our elected officials responsible and call on them to vote against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
Nearly two years ago, Costa Rican nationals and admirers thought they’d been given reason to rest easy. In May 2002, responding to a large-scale mobilization of the country’s environmentalists, President Abel Pacheco announced a moratorium on oil exploration and open-pit mining in Costa Rica.
The Bush administration will sign the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with five developing nations Friday, but opposition Democrats and civil society groups predict the deal will fail in Congress.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and Ministers of five
Central American countries today signed the U.S. Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) a historic agreement that will eliminate tariffs and trade barriers and expand regional opportunities for the workers, manufacturers, consumers, farmers, ranchers and service providers of all the countries.
The way U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick jets around the world, seeking to cut deals that would knock down trade barriers at home and abroad, it might seem as if the political furor over free trade and job losses at home were a minor flap.
The difference between what Bush officials say to Congress and the pap they feed foreign audiences makes interesting reading for anyone trying to figure out US government rhetoric on Latin America.
As befits a man whose very surnames are enough to conjure up images of Latin American radicalism, Fabio Chaves Castro is threatening to derail an ambitious plan to open up trade between the United States and the five small republics of Central America.
This document is the product of a collective effort by a group of Central American and U.S. women and men. It is part of a comprehensive public-education campaign on the
U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) being carried out by Central American and U.S. organizations in the Bloque Popular Centraomericano and the Hemispheric Social Alliance.
