(Historical) July 19, 2005, White House Spins its CAFTA Lies

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http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0719-31.htm

 

 

 

 

Published on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 by The Capital Times (Madison, WI)

 

 

White House Spins its CAFTA Lies

by John Nichols

 

 

The House of Representatives is moving toward a vote on the proposed

Central American Free Trade Agreement, and the spin machines of the

White House and the corporate special interests - along with their

amen corner in the media - are working overtime.

 

These are the days when the big lies get told - as we learned more

than a decade ago when the Clinton White House was busy working with

congressional Republicans to win support for the North American Free

Trade Agreement and more recently when Congress debated establishing

permanent normal trade relations with China.

 

To counter the Orwellian twists of facts and figures that are sure to

come from the White House and its political allies, the folks at the

Wisconsin Fair Trade Campaign have come up with a top 10 list of trade

doublespeak - and the facts to counter them:

 

No. 10: Our trade deficit actually shows how strong the economy is.

That's a lot like arguing that the more you go into debt, the richer

you really are. Here's what happened with NAFTA: Our trade deficit

with those countries is 12 times bigger than before the pact - it shot

up from $9 billion in 1993 to $111 billion last year. A high trade

deficit weakens our economy.

 

No. 9: CAFTA slows immigration. This same false promise was made under

NAFTA, and we all witnessed the opposite result of increased

immigration from Mexico. CAFTA has back-door provisions that may make

U.S. immigration laws and visa requirements in violation of the

agreement, and unenforceable.

 

No. 8: CAFTA opens a substantial market for U.S.goods. Central America

has some of the poorest countries in the world, and the aggregate

economy of the six CAFTA nations is minuscule. " Add up the six CAFTA

economies and you get a market the size of New Haven, Conn., " points

out trade analyst Alan Tonelson of the U.S. Business and Industry

Council. Tonelson concludes that CAFTA is a " classic outsourcing

agreement " - an arrangement in which the only significant U.S. export

would be manufacturing jobs to poor, low-wage nations.

 

No. 7: CAFTA helps the working poor of Central America. Since NAFTA,

real wages for Mexican workers have fallen. Over 1.5 million displaced

Mexican subsistence farmers were turned into unemployed masses. Mexico

is becoming poorer. Today, 40 percent of Central America's workers

earn less than $2 a day. Their employment rights are routinely abused,

and CAFTA will require these countries to merely enforce their own

weak and unfair labor laws. CAFTA is about making corporations, not

Central American workers, richer.

 

No. 6: CAFTA helps farmers. The poor of Central America will not be

buying cheese from Wisconsin or corn from Iowa. Under CAFTA, barriers

to agricultural imports from these countries would be removed

immediately, while barriers to U.S. exports wouldn't be lifted for

anywhere from 10 to 20 years - thereby crippling U.S. agricultural

producers. Many state-level farm organizations publicly oppose CAFTA.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture passed a

resolution against CAFTA because farm products aren't adequately

protected by the agreement. CAFTA will hurt the American farmer, but

funnel money to large agribusiness corporations who do business overseas.

 

No. 5: CAFTA is essential for national security. This desperate plea

by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice is a last-ditch effort by a failing administration to

resuscitate CAFTA using fear and divisiveness. Short of votes in

Congress, with a flawed strategy, they are attempting to scare the

American people into support. Nobody really thinks al-Qaida has

splinter cells in Costa Rica. We won't be fooled into believing Osama

bin Laden is hiding out in the Dominican Republic.

 

No. 4: CAFTA is a relatively small trade agreement. CAFTA is the

largest trade agreement before our country since NAFTA, and a critical

steppingstone toward creation of a 34-nation Free Trade Area of the

Americas. It has become a national referendum on failed trade policies

of the past, and the outcome will set a course for our future dealings

with China. For local and state government, CAFTA would become the

highest law of the land, determining rules on procurement, health

care, zoning and immigration.

 

No. 3: CAFTA helps the American worker. Just theopposite. When

companies in other countries are allowed to race to the basement,

employment conditions for our American workers deteriorate. We get

less pay, fewer benefits and reduced health care coverage. CAFTA is

the Wal-Mart of trade deals. CEOs justify actions by the need to stay

competitive and keep prices low. Big corporations then get all the

breaks, and the profits, while workers' rights and wages are forsaken.

 

No. 2: Trade deals always pass in Congress; so will CAFTA. Right now,

a majority of House members, including a significant number of

Republicans, oppose CAFTA. Another sizable bloc of GOP House members

is uncommitted. For CAFTA to pass, over two dozen House members will

have to breakcommitments to vote against it, and every single

uncommitted member will need to vote for it. That's not likely to

happen, as polling shows opposition to outsourcing and CAFTA is

growing. The more Americans find out about it, the less they like it.

 

No. 1 doublespeak: CAFTA trade policies create jobs and

stimulateeconomic growth. It's the Big Lie. When we import more, and

our trade deficit grows, we lose jobs, and export our wealth to other

countries. We lost an estimated 900,000 net jobs to NAFTA. Outsourcing

the American economy to other countries is a failing strategy for our

future.

 

John Nichols is the associate editor for The Capital Times. E-mail:

jnichols

 

©2005 The Capital Times