Your Most Trusted Source of Foreign
News and Views About the United States
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Your Most Trusted Source of Foreign
News and Views About the United States
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EDITORIAL
June 23, 2005
AGAIN President George W. Bush, is using forums like the Organization of American States, [O.A.S.], to plead for ratification of the CAFTA [Central American Free Trade Agreement] now being negotiated between the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic, and on which the House of Representatives will vote the next week.
Bush, explaining that the TLC is "pro-employment, pro-growth and pro-democracy" encouraged dozens of lobbyists, Hispanic leaders and Central American diplomats gathered in the Hall the Americas at O.A.S. headquarters, to intensify their efforts with members of the United States Congress to remind them and help them understand that, “We cannot, and should not, reject these young democracies," he said. "We must support democracy in our neighborhood.”
On June 30, the Senate approved CAFTA by a vote of 54 to 45, whereas the House Ways and Means Committee voted 25 to 16 to send the treaty to the full House for final consideration, where it will be the duty for all Congress members to vote in the coming days. It is assumed that the vote will be very close, if, as expected, the Democratic wing and a block of 20 Republicans oppose ratification.
For its part, the IMF presented a document entitled, "Central America: Global Integration and Regional Cooperation" which concludes that the Central American countries "will require an ample raft of reforms to obtain the greatest benefit from the agreement which will include the fortification institutions, including the regulatory agencies, the rule of law, property rights, and more flexible laws on labor and capital."
The authors of the document guaranteed that the treaty "will encourage business activity, and direct foreign investment and growth to the region, but [Latin American] countries require deep institutional reform of their economies to apply these changes and to make permanent the gains that come out of the treaty." In addition, it is necessary to insist on a process of restructuring that helps the region reach the necessary level of competitiveness, and when the asymmetries included in the treaty are reduced by free, equal commerce, without tariffs, quotas and restrictions in both directions.
The FTA comes with an initial grace period for the region. For several years, many of our products enter the North American market under more favorable conditions that are more or less similar to the benefits granted under the Extended Initiative for the Caribbean River Basin. But once this grace period is exhausted, is will be necessary to compete on a level playing field with the huge North American economy. If the [Latin American] countries don’t immediately begin the process economic and structural reform and reach this level of competitiveness, including much more training of the labor class, we will forego benefits that as yet we do not understand, and which will never come if we remain crippled by our shortcomings. The countries that reap the greatest rewards from this process will be those that take advantage of the opportunities. Those that do not will suffer the consequences.
