Cafta

DR-CAFTA: Effects and Alternatives
The Stop CAFTA Coalition’s Third Annual Monitoring Report

The Stop CAFTA Coalition

cafta-core@lists.riseup.net

http://www.stopcafta.org

Table of Contents
Introduction: Why Stop CAFTA? Promises and Failures of DR-CAFTA in El Salvador
By César Augusto Sanción, translated by Sara Skinner, SHARE: Building a New El Salvador Today

1 4 7

ElSalvador: Intellectual Property under CAFTA
By the Center for International Studies (CEI), translated by Katherine Hoyt, Nicaragua Network

CAFTA is a Disaster: Vignettes from the Nicaraguan Countryside and Marketplace
By Rachel Anderson, Witness for Peace Nicaragua

9 15 20 24 27 30 33 36 37

U.S. Agriculture since DR-CAFTA
By James K. Polk, PhD

CAFTA: Will it Improve CentralAmerica?
By Omar Salazar, translated by Krista Hanson and Katherine Hoyt

Major Problems with Mega-Projects
By Zack Haas, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Open Doors to Resource Extraction
By the Pastoral Commission for Peace and Ecology (COPAE), translated by Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA)

ALBA: A Different Kind of Trade Agreement
By Jill Hokanson andStephanie Selekman, Nicaragua Network

Association Agreement with the European Union: Better than CAFTA?
By Katherine Hoyt, Nicaragua Network

Conclusions Contributors

DR-CAFTA: Effects and Alternatives

Introduction: Why Stop CAFTA?
DR-CAFTA: Effects and Alternatives
The Stop CAFTA Coalition and its partners have compiled this third annual report to detail the trends and impactsthe U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) has had on citizens and economies in the signatory countries. The agreement is still relatively new, but the problems and trends forecasted or identified early on have materialized or proven worse than first expected. Patterns of growing inequality and ongoing poverty within the signatory countries have only become moreextreme, contrary to claims that DR-CAFTA proponents made when arguing for the agreement’s passage. The Stop CAFTA Coalition has determined that the negative impacts that DR-CAFTA has made in these countries are not simply “growing pains,” or the inevitable transitionary problems associated with the restructuring of a country’s economic system; they are fundamental flaws in the economic theory thatdrives DRCAFTA and will likely not improve. Therefore, the Coalition strongly recommends that the DR-CAFTA agreement be reassessed by the incoming Obama Administration and the 111th Congress, which convenes in January 2009. Not only should the U.S. put a moratorium on future CAFTA-style agreements, but Congress should evaluate the existing agreements and renegotiate or roll back the failed accords.In the case of DRCAFTA, the results of this report lead the Stop CAFTA Coalition to believe that the current agreement should be either completely overhauled or outright eliminated, and that a alternative trade relationship between the U.S. and Central America should built based on the eight principles of the “Pledge for Trade Justice” presented in the conclusion of this report. This reportdiffers slightly from previous monitoring reports published by the Stop CAFTA Coalition. Instead of a broad presentation showcasing DR-CAFTA’s impact on all signatory countries, this report presents some more specific concerns and patterns in three of the earliest adopters of DR-CAFTA: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The report also highlights the impact DR-CAFTA has had on the US economy, andshowcases some alternative trade agreements that may be better suited to the region. This report is the third in a series of reports by the Stop CAFTA Coalition about DR-CAFTA; the first was published in September 2006 and the second in September 2007. Those reports can be found at www.stopcafta.org.

Background
The Bush administration initiated CAFTA in January 2002 in an effort to revitalize...