The CAFTA Report
Arias asked to join renegotiation push
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The CAFTA Report
Arias asked to join renegotiation push
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Arias asked to join renegotiation push
For The CAFTA Report Opponents of the free trade treaty with the United States are placing their bets on Barack Obama and a group of U.S. congressmen who want a full-scale review of such agreements. Obama has suggested he might be open to renegotiating some trade agreements. The less temperate opponents here are calling for civil disobedience and a boycott of goods brought to the country under the trade agreement. Among the less shrilled is Ottón Solís, who wrote a letter to President Óscar Arias Sánchez last week urging him to establish an alliance with U.S. congressmen who want to improve the treaty. According to Solís, a renegotiated free trade treaty would reduce the excessive privilges given corporations and respect the values of democracy, human rights, religious liberty, workers' rights and the protection of the environment. Under the treaty, corporate and individuals investors have the right to international arbitration if they believe they have been treated unfairly by a host company. Solís also noted that another group of U.S. congressmen also exists who would increase the protectionism in U.S. law to the detriment of foreign importers. Solís wants Arias to create a working group to join with U.S. congressmen in favor of renegotiations. That would include U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud of Maine and Sen Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Both are Democrats. Michaud came to Costa Rica with U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont to speak against the treaty a year ago. He represents Maine's Second Congressional District where the paper mills face strong competition from foreign sources. He is a paper mill worker himself and a conservative Democrat. Brown represents what has been called the U.S. rust belt where heavy industry, particularly steel, has crumbled in the face of foreign competition. Brown's office also said he worked with Obama on legislation that would establish a patriot corporations act, which would reward companies that create jobs in the United States and the forewarn act, which would strengthen worker protections during layoffs. Michaud and Brown have introduced the trade reform, accountability, development and employment act, known as TRADE. The act, if passed would require a review of existing trade agreements and a renegotiation of existing trade agreements based on that review, said Michaud's office. The proposal would set terms of what must and must not be included in future trade agreements, and expresses the sense of the Congress that the role of Congress in trade policymaking should be strengthened, it said. The proposal, if passed, would require a vote of Congress before a trade agreement is signed. Now lawmakers either have to accept or reject such agreements but they cannot modify them. If passed, the proposal would require the General Accounting Office to conduct reviews of existing trade agreements by June 10, 2010, and provide an analysis against the detailed description in the bill of what must and must not be included in future U.S. trade agreements, according to a congressional summary. Some 75 members of Congress are believed to have cosponsored the bill. Although the trade agreement is an international treaty in Costa Rica, it was approved as a law in the United States. So change is possible there. Solís has been actively seeking renegotiation since Costa Rican voters passed the agreement by a three-point margin Oct. 7, 2007. Just 12 days later he published an opinion piece online that summarized arguments against the measure. "The fundamental problem is that, on many issues, CAFTA would give multinational corporations more power than our government," he said, using the acronym of the Central American Free Trade Agreement. "For instance, if a corporation thought that a new environmental regulation or a democratically decided performance requirement interfered with the company's interests, it could sue Costa Rica in a court located outside our territory, regardless of where the corporation registers its operations." Solís also said that intellectual property protections exceed U.S. patent law and the regulations of the World Trade Organization, the agreement will reduce access to generic drugs and thereby increase the price of medicines. These were all arguments that had been raised during the campaign leading up to the referendum. The agreement is very good for multinational corporations and a very small elite of Central Americans, said Solís. He also said that the White House interfered in Costa Rica's internal affairs, weighing in with statements that echoed false threats that the "yes" side had been spreading. Solís, of course, will be a presidential candidate on the ballot for the Partido Acción Ciudadana in February 2010. So he may get the chance to take direct action regarding the free trade treaty. In contrast to the reasoned arguments of Solís and others, the organization Costa Rica En Acción has not been shy about branding the free trade referendum a fraud. The organization is best known for its searing e-mails. Since the agreement was approved fraudulently, citizens have no obligation to obey it, the organization argues. The organization also is unhappy with Acción Ciudadana deputies who let the final implementing measure for the free trade treaty pass in the Asamblea Legislativa. In addition to undefined civil disobedience and a local boycott, the group also calls for boycotts in other countries. There is no indication how many persons the group represents. Left out of the renegotiation discussions are the other parties to the agreement: Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. |
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