It appears that Costa Rica, the lone hold out in not ratifying the CAFTA-DR trade agreement, is now under enormous pressure and strong arm tactics.
We are on the eve of discovering
whether the bullying, propaganda, and threats worked or not. The ratification vote is tomorrow.
From Eyes On Trade
Just when you thought the Bush administration was at its most shameful, it gets even worse. Just hours before Costa Rica goes to the polls to decide the fate of CAFTA, the Bush administration released yet another statement trying to intimidate Costa Ricans into approving CAFTA
Late Saturday night, the Bush Administration issued more threats to demand Costa Rica approve this bad deal. A few Senators isssued a complaint about this most “undemocratic” behavior.
Similar remarks earlier in the week from U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab elicited a complaint from Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. In a letter to Bush sent Friday, they urged him “to make it clear that the United States is not threatening retaliation against the people of Costa Rica for exercising their right to vote.
Senator Bernie Sanders on trade:
Free trade is very good for the large multinational corporations who can throw American workers out on the street, move abroad to China and other low-wage countries, hire people there for pennies an hour, and bring their products back into this country. For those people, for the CEOs of large corporations, unfettered free trade has been a very good thing, but for the middle-class and working families of this country, for working families and poor people in Mexico and in other low-wage countries, unfettered free trade has been an unmitigated disaster
David Sirota wrote a story on the Costa Rica CAFTA-DR vote and has additional details on these bad trade deals.
EPI gives some details on the promises of past trade agreements versus the actual results.
One of the most frightening elements is the threat to Costa Rica’s Universial Health Care system as being a barrier to trade that private corporations could now challenge in the WTO. Barrier to trade has become a catch-all to challenge almost anything a multinational corporation wants to.
From Public Citizen:
A number of provisions would lock in threats to public health and health care. Provisions of the services chapter could reduce affordable access to vital human services including health care, water supply, education and energy; and preempt the authority of public officials to protect health standards for professional licensing, environmental and occupational health, alcohol and tobacco protections, privacy rules, and patients’ rights. Other CAFTA chapters directly related to health cover intellectual property, which could reduce access to affordable medicines; standards for the safety of plants and food; and rules on how governments procure goods and services, and allocate subsidies. Many of these areas are already matters of controversy within the World Trade Organization (WTO). These provisions should not be approved in CAFTA, and should not stand as precedents for future trade agreements.
Meanwhile, back in the United States we have even more bad trade deals in the pipe. While we pray that Costa Rica stands up for their citizens and does not ratify this corporate lobbyist written agreement, back home, we need more people stand up and speak out.
Update: It passed, unreal.