PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY to demand Fair Trade not CAFTA!

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Posted 02/25/2003

CAFTA NEGOTIATIONS IN U.S. CENTRAL AMERICA IS NOT FOR SALE! TAKE ACTION NOW!

The second round of negotiations for CAFTA will take place February 24th to the 28th in Cincinnati, Ohio. From February 17th to the 21st, Representatives will be in their home office, which offers a great opportunity to call in, arrange a meeting, or stage a protest to ensure that your voice, along with the voices of all those who will be personally affected by CAFTA, is heard.

CAFTA negotiations officially began on January 27th with the opening meetings in Costa Rica. The negotiations will continue throughout 2003, roughly every month. Throughout the year, the CAFTA Coalition will organize an on-going campaign of advocacy and pressure to help defeat CAFTA, including monthly actions for grassroots activists. Keep reading to learn more about CAFTA and how to get involved.

Requested Actions:

1. Contact your Representative and Senator in Congress: * Call on them to demand Fair Trade, and thus, basic human rights and a living wage for coffee and cocoa farmers. * Call on them to demand increased civil society participation and transparency in the CAFTA negotiations. * Raise the concerns voiced by civil society groups in Central America and the U.S. about the negative effects CAFTA would have on the economic, social, and environmental situation in Central America.

2. Sign on to the People¹s Declaration Against Free Trade by going to www.cispes.org/cafta, e-mailing cispes@cafta.org, or calling 212-465-8115. Who to Contact: Contact your Representative and Senators by fax, phone, or email.

To find out their contact information, visit the following web sites House of Representatives: http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php Senate: http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. ********************************************************************** Sample Letter:

Dear_______

I am writing to express my profound concern about the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the upcoming meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio. The first round of negotiations, officially begin on January 27th in Costa Rica. CAFTA is essentially a continuation of the same policies put forward in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While NAFTA offered promises of increased economic prosperity, it has instead wrought disastrous consequences for workers, small-scale farmers, and the environment. In fact, since it began in 1994, the percentage of the Mexican population living in poverty has risen from 58% to 79% and more than 700,000 decent paying jobs were lost in the U.S. Free Trade has been the cause of a crisis for coffee producers worldwide.

Coffee farmers in Central America especially are now stuck in a cycle of poverty and debt. Subsidies for small farmers have been abolished in favor of free trade, which only benefits billion-dollar corporations. The only viable alternative is Fair Trade, which guarantees a living wage and access to credit at fair prices to poor farmers. These fair payments are invested in basic survival needs: food, shelter, health care, education and economic independence. Additionally, no draft text of the negotiating strategies for any of the countries has been made available either to the countries' Congress and National Assemblies or the general U.S. or Central American public.

This utter lack of transparency offers little, if any, opportunity for meaningful public comment or input and minimal oversight by elected officials. Instead, wealthy transnational corporations, who stand to gain the most if CAFTA passes, are among the few whom are given the opportunity to view draft texts and participate in negotiations.

The millions whose quality of life, independence, health, economic stability, and traditions will be adversely affected have virtually no say in their own future. I strongly believe that CAFTA will only exacerbate poverty, environmental destruction, the loss of national sovereignty, and the unequal distribution of wealth and power. Additionally, the process of planning and negotiating CAFTA grossly violates the inherent principles of democracy and development.. Any trade agreement created with the countries in Central America must involve the real participation of all those affected by it, including civil society members. It must also fully accept that labor, environmental, and human rights are a precursor to true and equal development.

I urge you to oppose CAFTA in its current form - until governments can negotiate a trade agreement that is based upon the real participation of the majority, and contains guaranteed and completely enforceable protections of environmental, labor, and human rights - like the Fair Trade system. I closely follow trade issues and will be in continued contact with you on this issue.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely,

********************************************************************** Thanks to our friends at CISPES for this (slightly modified) alert!!!!!!!!!! ********************************************************************** Background Information:

ANOTHER AMERICA IS POSSIBLE! CENTRAL AMERICA IS NOT FOR SALE! What is the U.S.- Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and why should we oppose it: The U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is a free trade agreement between the U.S. and the five Central American nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Official negotiations for CAFTA open between trade ministers of the six governments on January 27th in Costa Rica and will continue once a month until December of 2003. The U.S. and Central American governments hope to have the treaty finished and ready for approval by the national legislatures of the six countries by the end of 2003.

CAFTA is a continuation of the same policies put forward in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), this time between the U.S. and the 5 Central American countries. The implementation of CAFTA is seen key by the Bush administration and multinational corporations in obtaining the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would cover all the countries in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba. CAFTA is closely linked to the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), a 10-year long, multi billion dollar mega development project that will construct physical and industrial infrastructure throughout the region. Civil society groups in Mexico and Central America see the PPP as paving the way for CAFTA and FTAA.

These groups have protested the PPP because of the devastating impact that it will have on the environment, indigenous communities, and local economies. Since President Bush announced his intention to implement CAFTA in January of 2002, very little public information has been released. The U.S. has released its objectives for the negotiations, but not its official negotiating positions. Public hearings were held in November of last year and a Congressional Oversight Group for CAFTA, FTAA, and other free trade agreements has been set up, but genuine input and participation in the negotiations by civil society groups in the U.S. and the five Central American countries is non-existent. At the same time, the U.S. Business Roundtable and financial elites in Central America have constant access to their government negotiation teams and trade ministers.

The nine rounds of CAFTA negotiations will held in secret. If adopted CAFTA would have the following consequences: Privatization of Public Services: A key component of free trade agreements is the privatization of public services. The logic of neoliberalism (corporate globalization) that drives these agreements sees government subsidies and support of public services such as water, education and healthcare as unfair "barriers" to trade and competition. However, privatization benefits only a tiny political and economic elite at the expense of the general public.

Privatization has meant higher prices, poorer service, union busting, and worsened working conditions. Under CAFTA the state run health care, education, electrical generation, and water systems could be privatized and sold off to multinational corporations. Increased Corporate Power, Erosion of Democracy, and Lack of Transparency: Working hand-in-hand with privatization, free trade agreements like CAFTA would weaken regulatory measures and open the way for increased corporate exploitation in Central America and the U.S.

The examples of Enron and WorldCom show how corporations in the United States use the deregulated "free" market to destroy lives in the name of profit. It is no coincidence that Enron ? facing scandal in the US - is setting up shop in Nicaragua and other countries in the Global South. CAFTA would give companies free reign in Central America, obliterating the democratic process by robbing citizens of the power to shape their own destinies. Additionally, CAFTA will most likely contain the Chapter 11 investor rights provision of NAFTA.

This would allow foreign corporations to sue national governments for laws or regulations that were shown to have caused a loss in actual or even potential future profits. A secret tribunal whose members would be unknown to the public would hear such cases. Their rulings could not be appealed and would overrule existing local, state, and federal laws and international agreements on labor and human rights. Such elements of CAFTA would erode democracy and allow for decisions to be made behind closed doors that would affect the lives and well being of millions people.

The U.S. is pushing NAFTA like investor state dispute mechanisms in the FTAA, so we can also anticipate them in CAFTA. Destruction of agriculture and small farmers: CAFTA would remove all tariff barriers the 5 Central American countries now have on imported agricultural products.

This would allow cheaply grown and heavily subsidized U.S. corn and other basic grains to flood local markets. Small farmers in Central America, already devastated by the importation of cheaply grown U.S. basic grains, years of drought, and the massive fall of coffee prices on the world market, would face the extinction of their livelihoods. Under CAFTA millions would be forced to migrate to large urban areas to work in the informal sector or maquilas (sweatshops), or they would risk their lives in dangerous journey north to seek work in the U.S., facing a harsh anti-immigrant climate. Weakening of laws protecting workers rights and the environment: Laws protecting labor and human rights and the environment would be greatly weakened.

The past few months have seen large-scale governmental assaults on public sector unions in El Salvador trying to stop the privatization of the electrical generating and public health care systems. Workers have been violently attacked by riot police and their rights under the Salvadoran labor code and constitution trampled upon in an attempt to bust their unions. In Guatemala union members, peasant organizers, and human rights activists face an increasing climate of government repression, including murder and kidnapping.

Social movements and unions are also under attack in Honduras and Nicaragua. If implemented, CAFTA could overturn laws in the 5 Central American countries protecting labor and human rights. Claims by the U.S. and Central American governments that workers rights will be respected and protected under CAFTA seem farcical given the current repression now occurring in the region. Central America is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world, containing thousands of diverse and unique species of plants and animals. Laws protecting the environment could be gutted, declared as an impediment to the potential profits earned by foreign corporations.

The corporations could then sue national governments under Chapter 11 provisions. The following example shows what could very well happen under CAFTA. After the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, residents in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi refused to accept a toxic waste site that the U.S. corporation Metalclad wished to located in their communities. Metalclad then sued the Mexican Federal government using Chapter 11 provisions and won a judgment of $16 million. Social movements resist CAFTA: Throughout Central America labor unions, peasant organizations, indigenous and women's groups, and other social organizations are actively resisting CAFTA.

On October 12, 2002 at least 40,000 people organized coordinated protests through the region, blocking key points of the Pan American highway and border crossings. Since October there have been 4 massive marches of at least 100,000 people each by social organizations in El Salvador protesting the attempt to privatize the public health care system. A Central American wide coalition of trade unions, peasant and indigenous organizations, women? s and environmental groups, and non-governmental organizations have joined together to fight CAFTA. They are struggling for their self-determination and to defend alternative models of social and economic development benefiting the majority of people in their countries and not multinational corporations. ********************************************************************** For more information, please contact the CAFTA Coalition at cafta@cispes.org or the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) at 212-465-8115 or via e-mail at cispes@cispes.org. You can also visit http://www.cispes.org/cafta