Forbes.com: "Bush Wins CAFTA But Loses Wider War "

Bush Wins CAFTA But Loses Wider War
Oxford Analytica, 07.29.05, 6:00 AM ET

http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2005/07/29/central-american-trade-oxford-cx_0729oxfordcafta.html

The House of Representatives today approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in a vote of 217 to 215. The vote is a major victory for President George Bush and the Republican House leadership. However, it comes at the expense of increased partisanship and mounting disarray in the conduct and management of U.S. trade policy. Before the treaty comes into effect, ratification by Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica is necessary, and this is not guaranteed.

A key underlying problem for the administration is that the growing partisan divide in Congress over trade issues, particularly labor standards, provides traditional protectionist interest groups with considerable influence. The CAFTA vote is likely to force the administration to reevaluate its "competitive liberalization" trade strategy. While domestic politics may mean that free trade accords are still possible where U.S. trade is modest and labor conditions are not an issue, the administration's aggressive FTA program may now be stopped in its tracks.

The CAFTA debate in Congress has served as a proxy for deep concerns about the effects of trade agreements, along with record trade deficits, on U.S. workers. Polls showing that more than 50% of U.S. households do not support such trade initiatives buttressed the opposition of many Democrats. However, the same polls show that a majority of the U.S. populace supports deeper trade integration if they are given enhanced tools and training to compete effectively against foreign workers. Devising and implementing such schemes could be pivotal to prospects of reconstituting a bipartisan consensus in favor of trade liberalization.

The rancorous CAFTA debate will undermine the Bush team's ability to provide trade leadership and pursue its trade strategy. In the longer term, the sharp partisan divide over CAFTA underlines a fundamental schism over the direction of trade policy. Unless this divide can be bridged, U.S. leadership in favor of a liberal world trading system will be even more severely tested in the future.

"the same polls show that a majority of the U.S. populace supports deeper trade integration if they are given enhanced tools and training to compete effectively against foreign workers".

People, it NOT about "tools" and "training", it's about cheap labor. That is the ONLY thing the Corporate owned bush administration (and apparently, 15 Democrats :grr: ) is concerned with.

CHEAP LABOR! Read it, say it over and over because THIS is what it's all about, folks. We can NEVER compete against foreign workers when there are no mandated wage laws!

You can get all the training and tools in the world, but if you're not prepared to work for $1.50 an hour, it won't mean a damned thing. Corporations aren't moving these manufacturing jobs because there's not enough skilled labor, they're moving them overseas because they can produce the same goods at a fraction of the cost.

WHEN will people wake up to the fact that the GOP wants a slave/ master dynamic in this country such as we had in the 1800's? :grr: I get so PISSED OFF at people's stupidity sometimes it frightens me!