For more than ten years, North Americans have lived with the negative impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Despite its proven failure, the Bush Administration pushed through an expansion of NAFTA through another bi-lateral trade agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

CAFTA is a regional agreement between the United States, five Central American countries, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.

CAFTA uses the same failed models of NAFTA. The agreement includes “investor to state provisions” which gives foreign companies the right to sue state, local and federal governments of another country if they pass laws that take away that companies ability to make a profit.

Like NAFTA, this trade agreement threatens family farmers and ranchers. It favors corporate agribusinesses that keep commodity prices low and flood local markets with cheap imports. This allows these corporations to buy their inputs at the lowest possible price, process their products with the lowest cost labor and import that food into the U.S. at the highest possible profit.

Background

CAFTA is free trade we can't afford, Powder River Basin Resource Council ad

Region Strongly Opposes CAFTA, statement by Reed Kelley, on behalf of WORC

Narrow Senate Vote Reveals Regional Rejection of CAFTA, WORC statement

CAFTA trade agreement threatens family farmers and ranchers,rural communities,workers and sovereignty

Investor to State Provisions: Putting Profit Before People, WORC fact sheet

WORC tells Congress fair trade is good for farmers, ranchers and consumers, WORC's testimony on CAFTA

Public Citizen report analyzes 42 NAFTA Investor-State challenges and illustrates how proposed CAFTA would extend threat.

Who benefits from CAFTA?

• The multi-national corporations who continue to boast record profits.

Who loses under CAFTA?

• Farmers in both the U.S. and Central America who are forced to compete against each other for the lowest possible price in order to have a market for their commodity;
• Workers in Central American countries who are forced to compete for the lowest possible wages, the fewest possible benefits, and the lowest cost working conditions in order to “win” a contract with these multi-national companies;
• Rural communities which dwindle in all CAFTA countries as fewer and fewer family farmers are able to compete forcing them out of business and driving away the lifeblood of rural towns and villages; and
• Consumers who are forced to purchase food with no country of origin label and no assurance that their food was produced and processed in a safe, sustainable, healthy way.