CAFTA

Free Trade Undermining Democracy in Costa Rica?

Pre-election polls said Costa Ricans would reject CAFTA-DR. But election results differed and the stakes couldn't be higher for the future of the Costa Rican democracy and economy. What happened?

Letter in Response to Star Tribune Article on CAFTA

Letter submitted to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in response to an article criticizing sugar beet farmers for being concerned about the impact of CAFTA on their livelihoods.

CAFTA's Impact on U.S. Ethanol Market

The U.S. ethanol industry has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Much of this growth in the Midwest has been financed and fueled by local investments, primarily from family farmers, who own collectively over half of the 84 ethanol plants. These plants provide risk mitigation and a preferred market for corn farmers, new jobs and income streams for rural communities.

CAFTA-NAFTA: Don't Be Fooled Again

The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is modeled directly on NAFTA. The supporters of NAFTA's deregulation of national borders promised farmers they would "export their way to prosperity". After eleven years of NAFTA this line of thinking was exposed as a myth as farmers watched crop prices for major commodities decline, and now CAFTA would continue the same pattern.

Sweet or Sour? The U.S. Sugar Program and the Threats Posed by the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Program

The U.S. sugar program is the only major U.S.commodity program that guarantees fair prices to farmers, operates at no cost to tax payers and prevents export dumping at below the cost of production. In other words, it balances supply and demand.

Letter to the South American Ministers of Agriculture on CAFTA and U.S. Food Safety

This letter was sent in response to the U.S. demanding that the authorities in these countries recognize all USDA certified meat processing and slaughterhouse establishments as eligible to export to their countries and all U.S. meat hygiene and inspection measures as equivalent to what they already use. And this is in spite of the considerable and on-going food safety issues in the U.S.

Analysis of the Central American Free Trade Agreement Concerning Agriculture

The provisions in the Central American Free trade Agreement (CAFTA) that pertain to agricultural trade and agribusiness investment are spread through several chapters of the CAFTA text.

Why We Say No to CAFTA

This report on the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was released by Bloque Popular Centroamericano, the Alliance for Responsible Trade and the Hemispheric Social Alliance. Through the collective effort of U.S. and Central American groups, this analysis sounds the warning that CAFTA would throw into chaos everything from agriculture to pharmaceutical drug prices.