Demand Transparency and Participation in CAFTA negotiations!
Posted 04/16/2003
From Melinda St. Louis Advocacy and Campaigns Coordinator
Witness for Peace 1229 15th St., NW Washington, DC 20005
melinda@witnessforpeace.org
Greetings Friends - I just received this "call for
action" from our national WFP office. CAFTA (Central
America Free Trade Agreement) is the next step in expanding
NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement), to include
all countries from Mexico through Panama. The effects
of NAFTA have contributed to the loss of over 766,000
jobs in the U.S., while increasing the level of poverty
in Mexico and displacing hundreds of thousands of families.
We must join together to protect both workers and the
invironment throughout all the Americas! Please contact
your Congressional representative this week! In solidarity
-
WITNESS FOR PEACE Action Alert April 15, 2003
Demand Transparency and Participation in CAFTA negotiations!
BACKGROUND As part of our sustained campaign
to stop the harmful U.S.-Central America Free Trade
Agreement, Representatives Evans (D-IL) and McGovern
(D-MA) are currently circulating a "Dear Colleague"
letter, asking other members of Congress to sign on
to a letter to President Bush. The letter raises concern
over the lack of transparency and the speed of the negotiations
for the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement.
The documents being negotiated under CAFTA are not
publicly available, and civil society groups have not
been able to participate in any meaningful way in the
negotiations. We need your help to get members of Congress
to sign this letter to Bush! ACTION Call your Representatives,
and urge them to sign the Evans-McGovern Dear Colleague
on CAFTA. Tell them that the CAFTA negotiating process
lacks transparency and is unfair!
To contact your members' offices by phone, call the
Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to
be connected with your member's office. If you don't
know who your representative is, please see www.house.gov/writerep.
TALKING POINTS Example call on CAFTA Dear Colleague:
(Ask for the Foreign Policy Aide.) "Hi, my name is XXX,
and I'm calling from XXXXX. I was wondering whether
your office has seen the Dear Colleague letter being
circulated this by Representatives Evans and McGovern.
The letter is directed to President Bush, and calls
for greater transparency and public participation in
the negotiation process for the U.S.-Central American
Free Trade Agreement. Have you seen this letter?"
IF YES: "Do you think your boss will sign on?"
Ask them to contact Evans' office for more information
or another copy of the letter.
IF NO: "Negotiations for the Central American
Free Trade Agreement or CAFTA are underway between the
US and five Central American countries. Many are concerned
that the negotiation process has been rushed and secretive.
The terms and documents of the negotiations have not
been made public, and all negotiations are slated to
be completed by the end of 2003. Rep. Evans is circulating
a letter this week, calling for more civil society participation
in the process. The letter specifically calls for better
labor protection language in CAFTA. Do you think your
boss will sign on?" (For a copy of the letter or more
information, tell the Foreign Policy aide to contact
Hastie Kargar in Evans' office at 225-5905)
TO SIGN: Contact Hastie Kargar in Evans office
at at 225-5905. The letter will remain open through
next week. This alert was prepared by Washington Office
on Latin America P.S. Thanks to all who participated
in the Latin America Solidarity Coalition events in
Washington last weekend. The conference was a great
success and the "Tour of Shame" march highlighting the
damaging policies of Taco Bell, Inter-American Development
Bank, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative,
Occidental Petroleum and the World Bank and IMF was
extremely important in making connections between military
and economic intervention in Latin America! We educated
many more people about the devastating effects of these
Free Trade Agreements.
