CAFTA: 1 down, 5 to go

First the news story:

CAFTA goes into effect only with El Salvador on March 1

AP - The Bush administration announced Friday that a free trade agreement with El Salvador will take effect on Wednesday, but five other nations who are supposed to be included in the Central American Free Trade Agreement will have to wait.

The announcement was made by U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman who praised El Salvador for the strides it had made in revising laws and regulations to meet its obligations under CAFTA.

Portman said the administration would continue to work with the five other CAFTA countries to "ensure timely and full implementation" of the agreement which would eliminate trade barriers between the United States and the six nations over the next decade.

Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua are the other nations in CAFTA, which won congressional approval after a hard-fought battle last year.

Democratic critics charged that the deal would expose American workers to unfair competition from low-wage nations and will hasten the movement of American manufacturing jobs overseas.

Latin American officials have complained that the United States is making unfair demands for changes in their regulations and laws governing such areas as the protection of copyrights and patents.

And now the response from immigrant groups and solidarity organizations:

**Press Release**
February 24, 2006

Immigrant and solidarity groups protest CAFTA free trade agreement during visit of Salvadoran President Tony Saca to the White House

Stop CAFTA Coalition denounces flawed implementation, pledges to continue fighting CAFTA

Contacts: Burke Stansbury (English): 718 832 9399; Ulysses Miranda (Spanish): 301 675 4860

On Friday, February 24 several organizations gathered in front of the White House to protest the US-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) as the President of El Salvador Antonio Saca met with President George W. Bush to discuss the pending March 1st implementation of the accord.

“Salvadorans are upset that President Saca has come to sign our country on to CAFTA despite overwhelming opposition to the agreement in El Salvador,” said Ulysses Miranda, a member of the FMLN party living in Washington.

“We see Saca’s trip as nothing more than a ploy by the right-wing ARENA party to demonstrate its close relation with the US on the eve of the March 12 elections in El Salvador. But becoming the first country to implement CAFTA will not win votes with Salvadorans!”

Protesters gathered at Lafayette Park for a rally, and then marched to the Organization of American States, where the CAFTA implementing decree was delivered on Friday.

CAFTA implementation was supposed to take place on January 1 with five Central American countries (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica) as well as the Dominican Republic. However, various inconsistencies in the process of legal reforms in each of those countries delayed the implementation.

The Costa Rican legislature has yet to vote on CAFTA, and recent presidential elections there became a referendum on the trade agreement, giving CAFTA opponent Ottón Solís a chance to win a surprise victory pending an ongoing manual recount.

According to Burke Stansbury from the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), "from day one the Bush administration has been trying to ram CAFTA down people's throats, with little debate. In Costa Rica they have failed, and in other countries it took repression and dirty tactics to ratify CAFTA. But just as Central American social movements continue to resist the imposition of this devastating agreement, we too are not giving up."

In addition to becoming the first country to complete the requirements for implementing CAFTA, El Salvador is the only country in Latin America with troops in Iraq, and could soon become the home of a new US-sponsored police training school called the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA). Local Salvadorans claim that President Saca’s trip has more to do with shoring up El Salvador’s position as a US-satellite than it does the issue of immigration.

“Saca claims to be promoting the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) but such benefits for Salvadorans living in the US have always been won by grassroots groups. If Saca really wants to help Salvadoran immigrants, he would pull El Salvador out of CAFTA,” said Miranda.

In addition to major anti-CAFTA mobilizations in El Salvador over the past month, a large demonstration against CAFTA implementation took place in Guatemala on Friday. “Today we continue to say "No to CAFTA!" in solidarity with our partners in Central America,” said Andrew de Sousa of NISGUA.

For more information see www.stopcafta.org

Tags: Guatemala, CAFTA, El Salvador, CISPES, NISGUA