CAFTA: Does "Free" Trade Help Our Partners?

President Bush, desperate to pass his corporate cronies' "free" trade agenda, has resorted to ethnic appeals in pushing the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Specifically, he is courting Hispanic lawmakers by claiming CAFTA will help build the economy of Central America. The sales pitch is so dishonest that Hispanics should be insulted.

As the Wall Street Journal notes today, CAFTA is actually being opposed by Costa Rica, the region's oldest democracy. "Costa Ricans worry that Cafta may lead to the privatization of the country's free universal health-care system," the Journal reports. "Just 38% of Costa Ricans polled in February who had heard of the deal thought it would benefit the country, compared with 56% in January of last year, according to a study by the CID/Gallup polling firm."

The Journal also notes that behind closed doors, free traders' warm promise of prosperity transforms into icy cold threats. Two free-trade Members of Congress actually went to Costa Rica last week and warned that if Costa Rica's legislature didn't approve CAFTA, "Congress would eventually cut off existing trade preferences." Their message was clear: submit or you will be crushed. And yet some still wonder why anti-Americanism is growing in Latin America.

Costa Rica is not stupid. They know that this deal is going to be a disaster not only for American workers, but for their economies as well. My suggestion to any lawmaker who thinks their support of CAFTA is doing a favor to Central America: Buy the movie "Life & Debt" at Amazon.com and watch it before you cast your vote. It is a documentary about the real-world effects of America's corporate free trade policy on small, impoverished nations. It is not pretty. And until we stop this kind of free trade madness, its only going to get uglier, both at home and abroad.