Central America Trade Pact Seen Aiding U.S., Regional Interests
USTR's Allgeier describes expected benefits of trade agreement
to Senate panel
The proposed free-trade agreement between
the United States, the nations of Central America and the
Dominican Republic will be a partnership that spurs economic
growth while strengthening regional democracy, says acting
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Peter Allgeier.
Testifying April 13 before the U.S. Senate Committee on
Finance, Allgeier told legislators that the agreement --
known variously as CAFTA-DR, or CAFTA -- would help consolidate
democratic and free-market gains throughout Central America
and the Dominican Republic, thereby reinforcing the region's "progress
toward economic, political and social reform."
From the U.S. perspective, CAFTA is attractive because Central
America and the Dominican Republic are large export markets
for the United States, Allgeier said. "The American
Farm Bureau Federation estimates CAFTA could expand U.S.
farm exports by $1.5 billion a year, which would represent
nearly a doubling of our current agricultural exports to
the region," he said.
Many U.S. sectors that would stand to benefit from CAFTA,
the USTR official explained. "From soft drinks to software,
from pork to paper products, the region is a voracious consumer
of U.S. products and services,” Allgeier said. “In
some areas, textile yarn and fabric for example, the region
is second only to Mexico as a worldwide consumer of U.S.
exports."
U.S. workers and farmers favor CAFTA because the pact "will
further open regional markets to our products and services,
which currently face very high average tariffs or nontariff
barriers," he added. "The chief effect of CAFTA
is not to further open our market, but rather to tear down
barriers to our products and services in Central America
and the Dominican Republic."
In response to skeptics who claim that CAFTA's benefits
are likely to be one-sided, Allgeier pointed out that the
agreement "will create new opportunities for U.S. workers
and manufacturers," since under CAFTA, "more than
80 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial goods
will become duty-free immediately, with remaining tariffs
phased out over 10 years."
Moreover, CAFTA is expected to play a decisive role in the
textiles sector, according to Allgeier. "Textiles and
apparel is an important component of our trade with the region
and deserves special mention," he said.
Algeier added that garment factories in Central America
and the Dominican Republic are large consumers of U.S.-made
textile fabric and yarn. "CAFTA will help keep it that
way," he said, "by delivering tariff preference
benefits for clothing made in the region that uses U.S. yarn
and fabric."
Citing increased global competition, particularly from Asia,
Allgeier warned lawmakers that "without CAFTA, our domestic
yarn and textile industry would likely lose one of its biggest
customers." Obviously, "without the tariff preference
benefits of CAFTA, apparel companies may well move production
to China," he said. "In China, there are no special
trade incentives for apparel producers to buy U.S. yarn and
fabric," which is the reason why "a T-shirt that
is made in Honduras is likely to contain well over 50 percent
U.S. [yarn] content, while a T-shirt made in China is likely
to contain very little U.S. content at all."
Allgeier emphasized that the health of the U.S. yarn sector
is heavily dependent on a thriving textile industry in Central
America and the Dominican Republic.
The USTR official also assured senators that CAFTA recognizes
the need to protect workers' rights and labor standards in
the region. Central American countries and the Dominican
Republic have passed a number of laws to safeguard those
rights and standards, but enforcement remains an issue, he
said. "CAFTA is specifically designed to respond to
the problem at hand by improving enforcement and expanding
resources," Allgeier said.
Similarly, CAFTA requires the signatory parties to take
concrete steps to protect the environment, as well, he said. "I
believe that the CAFTA environmental provisions, and the
associated Environmental Cooperation Agreement, are the most
forward-leaning trade and environmental package ever," Allgeier
said.
He also addressed the subject of the U.S. sugar industry,
which is sensitive to import competition. "The amount
of sugar allowed into the United States under CAFTA is miniscule," he
told senators. "Claims that the CAFTA will harm the
U.S. sugar industry are simply wrong."
Allgeier also cited regional achievements during recent
decades, as demonstrated by the widespread rejection of authoritarian
regimes and civil wars. Today, "we have neighbors in
Central America and the Dominican Republic who want to trade
goods, not guns, across their borders," he said. "They
want to replace chaos with commerce, and to use CAFTA as
an important tool of reform that will help deepen and strengthen
democracy" through the promotion of accountability and
transparency.
CAFTA "will open these large and growing markets to
our goods and services," Allgeier said. "CAFTA
will level the playing field, helping our workers and farmers
sell to countries that already enjoy virtually unlimited
access to the United States market. The agreement will help
the U.S. textile industry unite with some of its largest
world customers to better compete against imports from China
and other Asian competitors."
Urging lawmakers to approve the proposed agreement, Allgeier
said: "We hope the Congress will agree that America
should not turn its back on struggling democracies that want
a closer economic relationship that will benefit workers
in all our countries. CAFTA makes eminent sense for America,
and for Central America and the Dominican Republic."
Following is the text of Allgeier's prepared testimony:
(begin text)
Statement of Ambassador Peter F. Allgeier,
Acting U.S. Trade Representative,
before the Committee on Finance,
United States Senate
Washington, D.C.
April 13, 2005
INTRODUCTION
Chairman Grassley, Senator Baucus, and Members of the Committee,
I am pleased to have the opportunity to testify before you
today on the free-trade agreement with Central America and
the Dominican Republic, or CAFTA. As I have stated before
in this room on several occasions, the Office of the U.S.
Trade Representative greatly appreciates the hard work of
this Committee, and I commend in particular Chairman Grassley
and Senator Baucus for their leadership on trade matters.
I would like to begin today with a bit of historical context.
Twenty years ago, Congress held several hearings on the topic
of Central America. But the Administration witnesses were
not from USTR, and the topics had little to do with economics.
In February 1985, the House Foreign Affairs Committee held
a hearing about developments in Guatemala, where an undemocratic
military government ruled and civil war raged. The following
month, the House heard testimony from Pentagon and State
Department officials about U.S. military assistance to El
Salvador, which was then fighting an armed Communist insurgency.
In 1985, to the extent that Congress or the American people
paid attention to Central America, it was largely because
of violence, dictatorships, and civil war.
It is an extraordinary sign of the progress made in Central
America that we meet here today -- twenty years later --
to discuss a free-trade agreement, an economic partnership
with these countries. Today, the Dominican Republic and the
nations of Central America are all democracies. Elected leaders
are embracing freedom and economic reform, fighting corruption,
strengthening the rule of law and battling crime, and supporting
America in the war on terrorism. And they want to help cement
their courageous moves toward democracy and free markets
by signing a free trade agreement with their neighbor to
the North, the United States.
CAFTA marks the successful culmination of a decades-long
American policy of promoting economic reform and democracy
in Central America. President Bush strongly believes that
America should stand with those in our hemisphere -- and
the world -- who stand for economic freedom. CAFTA offers
us the best opportunity to strengthen the economic ties we
already have with these nations, and to reinforce their progress
toward economic, political and social reform.
But CAFTA is not an act of unilateral altruism on the part
of the United States. We have much to gain from this trade
agreement: access to a large and growing market of 45 million
consumers close to our border, and an opportunity to level
the playing field for American workers and farmers who today
must cope with one-way free trade from Central America and
the Dominican Republic without a reciprocal chance to compete.
The agreement that we are here to consider today is the
result of over three years of hard work and close cooperation
between the Administration and the Congress, which began
when President Bush announced his intent to negotiate a free
trade agreement with Central America in January 2002. Using
guidance from Trade Promotion Authority, USTR formally consulted
closely with committees of jurisdiction before and after
every round of negotiations, shared proposed text of the
agreement with staff and Members prior to presenting texts
in the negotiations. Former USTR Robert Zoellick, myself,
and our chief negotiators consulted with the Congressional
Oversight Group and with Members on an individual basis.
We took all views into consideration during each step of
the negotiations, and greatly value the input provided by
the Congress for this agreement. Our dialogue with the Congress
continues today, and I welcome this opportunity to talk with
all members about CAFTA.
In concluding this FTA, our objective, which we feel confident
that we have met, was to follow the negotiating objectives
laid out by Congress in the bipartisan Trade Act of 2002
to strike a comprehensive and commercially meaningful agreement
that will benefit U.S. workers, businesses, farmers, investors
and consumers. At the same time, these complex negotiations
took careful consideration of import sensitivities of the
United States, many of which were communicated to us by members
of Congress. We worked hard to take into account all concerns
raised with us by members of Congress, and believe that we
struck careful balances to reflect these interests.
So today I would like to discuss the reasons why we believe
CAFTA is strongly in the national interest of the United
States, and why we want to work with Congress to pass this
trade agreement into law.
Small Countries, Big Markets
Central America and the Dominican Republic are very large
export markets for the United States. Collectively, these
countries make up the second-largest U.S. export market in
Latin America, with more than $15.7 billion in U.S. exports
in 2004. For some key states, for example Florida and North
Carolina, the region is a top-three export destination for
made-in-USA products. Central America and the Dominican Republic
form a larger export market than Brazil, a larger export
market than Australia, and a larger export market than Russia,
India and Indonesia combined.
While the Central America countries and the Dominican Republic
are physically small, they are clearly large markets for
U.S. products and services. The American Farm Bureau Federation
estimates CAFTA could expand U.S. farm exports by $1.5 billion
a year, which would represent nearly a doubling of our current
agricultural exports to the region. Manufacturers would also
benefit, especially in sectors such as information technology
products, agricultural and construction equipment, paper
products, pharmaceuticals, and medical and scientific equipment.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has done a number of studies
of the potential economic impact of CAFTA in just eight key
U.S. states, and estimates that U.S. sales to the region
would expand by more than $3 billion in the first year of
CAFTA. From soft drinks to software, from pork to paper products,
the region is a voracious consumer of U.S. products and services.
In some areas, textile yarn and fabric for example, the region
is second only to Mexico as a worldwide consumer of U.S.
exports.
Leveling the Playing Field: New Opportunities for U.S. Workers,
Farmers
But while these Central American countries and the Dominican
Republic buy many goods and services from the United States,
we currently face an unlevel playing field. Most Americans
probably do not realize that we already have free trade with
Central America and the Dominican Republic, but it is one-way
free trade. Under unilateral preference programs begun by
President Reagan and expanded under President Clinton with
broad bipartisan support, nearly 80 percent of imports from
Central America and the Dominican Republic already enter
the United States duty-free. In agriculture, that percentage
is even higher: we estimate that 99 percent of Central America's
and the Dominican Republic's farm exports to the United States
are duty-free. For the countries of the region, CAFTA will
lock in those benefits and expand on them, helping to promote
U.S. investment in the region.
But more importantly, CAFTA will level the playing field
for American workers and farmers. It will further open regional
markets to our products and services, which currently face
very high average tariffs or non-tariff barriers. For example,
today the average Central American applied tariff on motor
vehicles is 11.1 percent, while U.S. applied tariffs on imports
from Central America are zero. The regional tariff on steel
averages 16.3 percent, but the U.S. tariff is zero. The regional
tariff on chemicals is 12.8 percent, but the U.S. tariff
is zero. The same situation exists in agriculture: Central
American and Dominican tariffs on U.S. vegetables faced a
tariff ranging from 15 percent to 47 percent; ours are zero.
U.S. fruits and nuts faced a tariff as high as 25 percent
while products in this same sector enter our market duty-free.
The chief effect of CAFTA is not to further open our market,
but rather to tear down barriers to our products and services
in Central America and the Dominican Republic.
CAFTA will create new opportunities for U.S. workers and
manufacturers. More than 80 percent of U.S. exports of consumer
and industrial goods will become duty-free immediately, with
remaining tariffs phased out over 10 years.
The agreement will also expand markets for U.S. farmers
and ranchers. More than half of current U.S. farm exports
to Central America will become duty-free immediately, including
high quality cuts of beef, cotton, wheat, soybeans, key fruits
and vegetables, and processed food products among others.
Tariffs on most remaining U.S. farm products will be phased
out within 15 years. U.S. farm products that will benefit
from improved market access include pork, dry beans, vegetable
oil, poultry, rice, corn, and dairy products. It is significant
that every major U.S. farm commodity group but one has stated
its strong support for CAFTA.
In the important area of services, the Dominican Republic
and the Central American countries will accord substantial
market access across their entire services regime, offering
new access in sectors such as telecommunications, express
delivery, computer and related services, tourism, energy,
transport, construction and engineering, financial services,
insurance, audio/visual and entertainment, professional,
environmental, and other sectors. The Dominican Republic
and the Central American countries made significant commitments
regarding their "dealer protection" regimes. These
commitments will help ensure that U.S. firms are not locked
into exclusive or uneconomical distributor arrangements.
This is also a trade agreement for the digital age, providing
state-of-the-art protections and non-discriminatory treatment
for digital products such as U.S. software, music, text,
and videos. Protections for U.S. patents, trademarks and
trade secrets are strengthened, and several are Chile-plus
provisions, such as strong patent protection by 2007 for
certain modified plant varieties.
And this agreement breaks new ground, providing strong anti-corruption
measures in government contracting and other matters affecting
international trade or investment. U.S. firms are guaranteed
a fair and transparent process to sell goods and services
to a wide range of Central American and Dominican Republic
government entities. The agreement's dispute settlement mechanisms
call for open public hearings, public access to documents,
and the opportunity for third parties to submit views, with
limited exceptions to protect confidential information. Transparency
in customs operations will aid express delivery shipments
and will require more open and public processes for customs
rulings and administration.
Textiles
Textiles and apparel is an important component of our trade
with the region and deserves special mention. The Administration
strongly believes that CAFTA is not a threat to U.S. textile
producers but in fact represents a critical element in our
domestic industry's ability to compete with Asia.
Today, garment factories in Central America and the Dominican
Republic are very large consumers of U.S.-made textile fabric
and yarn. The extensive use of U.S. inputs in the regional
apparel business means that Central America and the Dominican
Republic actually constitute the second-largest world export
market for U.S. textile yarn and fabric, behind only Mexico.
For states like North Carolina, exports of textile fabric
and yarn to garment makers in the region make a small country
like Honduras that state's number-one export market in the
world. CAFTA will help keep it that way, by delivering tariff
preference benefits for clothing made in the region that
uses U.S. yarn and fabric.
Without CAFTA, our domestic yarn and textile industry would
likely lose one of its biggest customers. Worldwide quotas
on textiles and apparel expired at the end of last year,
meaning that the hemispheric industry faces a new collective
threat from Asia. Without the tariff preference benefits
of CAFTA, apparel companies may well move production to China.
Indeed, the uncertainty to date about CAFTA has already caused
a number of apparel firms to shut down operations in Central
America and move them to China; as many as 10,000 workers
may already have already lost their jobs. In China, there
are no special trade incentives for apparel producers to
buy U.S. yarn and fabric. In fact, they are much more likely
to buy inputs from Asian suppliers, rather than producers
here in the United States. That's why a T-shirt that is made
in Honduras is likely to contain well over 50 percent U.S.
content, while a T-shirt made in China is likely to contain
very little U.S. content at all.
To keep our customers for U.S. yarn and fabric, we need
to keep them close to home. And to keep them close to home,
we need to pass CAFTA soon.
Labor
I know that there is considerable interest on the Committee
with regard to worker rights and labor standards in Central
America and the Dominican Republic. We share that interest,
and I believe we share the goal of seeing the continuation
of real, meaningful improvements in worker rights in the
region. I believe we should focus our strategy, and our attention
and efforts, on the chief problem in these countries: the
need to improve enforcement of domestic labor laws.
The Central American countries, and later the Dominican
Republic, requested a study by the International Labor Organization
(ILO) of the labor situation in their countries. The ILO
study demonstrated that labor laws on the books in Central
America and the Dominican Republic, are generally in line
with ILO core labor standards. The Administration's own,
more detailed analysis of the labor rights situation in these
six countries confirms that their labor laws are generally
ILO-consistent. Indeed, labor protections on the books in
the region are broadly similar to labor laws in Morocco,
and in some areas (e.g., child labor) are stronger. Congress
gave broad bipartisan support to an FTA with Morocco in 2004.
But let's be clear: the enforcement of labor laws in the
region needs more attention and resources. Our analysis shows
this, and the Central Americans and Dominicans themselves
acknowledge this, as the White Paper released last week by
regional Labor and Trade Ministers clearly demonstrates.
CAFTA is specifically designed to respond to the problem
at hand by improving enforcement and expanding resources
with a comprehensive, three-part strategy:
-- First, the agreement requires that countries not fail
to effectively enforce their labor laws. If they consistently
fail to enforce those laws in a manner that affects our trade,
then they face the prospect of monetary penalties that will
be directed to solve the problem, or potentially face the
loss of preferential trade benefits. As the New York Times
said in an editorial on November 24, 2004, "CAFTA actually
goes further than the pact with Jordan, since penalty fines
collected for not enforcing labor laws would he sent hack
to the offending country to fix the offense." Exactly
right.
-- Second, it's important to note that countries in the
region have already taken numerous, concrete steps to improve
labor law enforcement, including hiring more labor inspectors,
appointing special labor prosecutors, prosecuting perpetrators
of violence against trade unionists, and cutting the backlog
of cases in their labor courts. There is much more to do,
however. So we were pleased that last week Labor and Trade
Ministers announced a series of additional and specific recommendations
to further improve labor law enforcement.
-- Finally, we need to provide assistance to build the capacity
of these countries to enforce their laws more effectively
and to strengthen their enforcement institutions and infrastructure.
We're pleased that the Department of Labor committed $7.7
million to a multi-year technical assistance effort. Congress
has now appropriated $20 million for FY05 for "labor
cooperation, capacity building on fundamental labor rights
and the elimination of child labor, and improvement in labor
administration", as well as for important environmental
cooperation activities in this region. The [Bush] Administration
intends to work with the Congress and with the CAFTA countries
to target these funds toward the areas of greatest need,
and we hope that the funds provided for FY05 are only a first
step in an ongoing commitment by the Congress to fund labor
capacity-building in this region.
Our comprehensive strategy does not attempt to minimize
the challenges we faced: We negotiated a fully TPA-consistent
labor chapter, we worked with the Dominican Republic and
the Central American countries to make real worker rights
progress during the negotiations, and there is a strategy
for long-term capacity-building. This concrete, real-world
effort is directed at where the problem lies: problems with
the enforcement of existing laws in Central America and the
Dominican Republic. By contrast, a strategy of defeating
CAFTA would preserve the status quo, and very likely set
back progress to date. Defeating CAFTA will do nothing to
improve working conditions for a single worker in Central
America or the Dominican Republic, and in fact will have
the opposite effect, as tens of thousands of Central Americans
and Dominicans stand to lose their jobs to China if the United
States turns its back on CAFTA. We believe that one of the
best ways to improve working conditions in Central America
and the Dominican Republic is to have strong economic growth,
combined with a comprehensive and targeted strategy to build
the capacity of these countries to enforce their labor laws.
Environment
We have also broken new ground on the environment side.
I believe that the CAFTA environmental provisions, and the
associated Environmental Cooperation Agreement, are the most
forward-leaning trade and environment package ever. We have
worked closely with Congress in developing our approach,
and I would like to particularly acknowledge the role of
Senator Max Baucus as a key architect of many of its unique
features.
The CAFTA countries have come a long way in the last decade
in putting in place good environmental laws as well as the
beginning of a complete environmental legal regime, but enforcement
in many cases remains a significant challenge. There is also
the need for greater transparency and involvement of civil
society in environmental decision-making. To address these
concerns, in addition to continuing existing Administration
efforts to help the CAFTA countries further develop their
legal regimes, we have included several innovations in the
environment package:
-- First, working with Senator Baucus, we have developed
a new public submissions mechanism that will allow the interested
public, including NGOs, an opportunity to challenge a Party's
failure to enforce its environmental laws and to obtain an
independent review of their submissions. CAFTA is the first
trade agreement ever to include this kind of mechanism in
its core provisions, and it will give civil society in the
region a new voice in working to improve environmental enforcement
in the region. Just a few weeks ago, in a ceremony taking
place at the Organization of American States, we and our
Central American and Dominican Republic counterparts signed
a landmark agreement that designates a new environmental
unit within SIECA -- the Organization for Central American
Economic Integration -- as the secretariat to implement these
provisions.
-- Second, the parallel environmental cooperation agreement
(also signed at the OAS ceremony) builds on previous capacity-building
efforts in the region, but breaks new ground in several ways.
For the first time ever, the agreement provides for the establishment
of short-, medium- and long-term benchmarks for measuring
progress in meeting environmental goals. The agreement also
provides for independent monitoring by outside organizations
of success in meeting these benchmarks. Initial priority
areas for cooperation include reinforcing capacity to implement
and enforce environmental laws, including habitat conservation,
trade in endangered species and treatment of hazardous wastes.
-- Finally, we are taking steps to ensure that capacity-building
efforts are adequately funded. The Administration has initiated
a Deputies process to oversee environmental cooperation efforts
linked with all the FTAs and to organize an inter-agency
budget process to promote coordination across interested
federal agencies. The Administration also is considering
how to allocate the $20 million in FY05 funding between labor
and environment activities.
The response in the region is already gratifying. Last month,
ten Central American NGOs sent a letter to former U.S. Trade
Representative Zoellick and the trade ministers of our Central
American and Dominican Republic partners, expressing their
support for the CAFTA and urging its passage. These groups
praised the CAFTA environmental package and the opportunities
it provides for them to have a new voice in pressing for
environmental progress in the region. The governments are
also doing their part to prepare the way for CAFTA's implementation.
With our participation, they have held numerous public outreach
sessions in the region, with more to follow. And just to
take some of the most recent examples of concrete action:
Nicaragua has created a new office on trade and environment
within its environment ministry as the result of the CAFTA,
while El Salvador has established a new advisory committee
on trade and environment issues, with NGOs on the committee,
very much like our own Trade and Environment Policy Advisory
Committee (TEPAC). In fact, the Environment Chapter requires
all of the CAFTA-DR countries to establish such advisory
committees.
Thus, we are poised to make a real difference in strengthening
civil society and environmental protection in Central America
and the Dominican Republic. We should not let this historic
opportunity pass.
Sugar: Handled with Care
We are aware that some members of Congress have expressed
concerns with U.S. sectors that are sensitive to import competition,
such as sugar. If I had to describe in a phrase how we handled
those issues in the agreement, it would be, "handled
with care."
On sugar, it is important to remember that there will be
no change in the above-quota U.S. duty on sugar. This was
an important accomplishment that recognizes the sensitivity
of this important sector of the U.S. farm economy. CAFTA
will not have a destabilizing effect on the U.S. sugar program,
because even with a modest increase under CAFTA, U.S. imports
will still fall comfortably below levels set for sugar imports
in the Farm Bill.
In other agreements, we have also been sensitive to this
issue. In our FTA with Australia, sugar was excluded entirely.
In our agreements with Chile and Morocco, we have provisions
that effectively will result in no change in the levels of
sugar imports from those nations.
For Central America and the Dominican Republic we agreed
to a very small and very limited expansion of the quota for
sugar imports from these countries.
The total increased quota amount is equivalent to only about
one day's worth of U.S. sugar production. We produce more
than 7 million metric tons of sugar in the United States
annually. The increased amounts under CAFTA are only a little
over 100,000 metric tons. Even after 15 years, increased
sugar imports from Central America and the Dominican Republic
will amount to only about 1.7 percent of U.S. consumption.
In addition, the Agreement includes a mechanism that allows
the United States, at our option, to provide alternative
compensation to CAFTA country exporters in place of imports
of sugar.
To put sugar imports under CAFTA into perspective, the increased
imports in the first year under CAFTA amount to about a teaspoon
and half per week per American. That compares with average
consumption of 10-20 teaspoons of added sugar per day for
most Americans. The amount of sugar allowed into the United
States under CAFTA is minuscule. Claims that the CAFTA will
harm the U.S. sugar industry are simply wrong.
A Unique Chance to Strengthen Democracy
Mr. Chairman, the last twenty years has been a sometimes
difficult road to democracy in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua,
and other countries in the region. But today we have neighbors
in Central America and the Dominican Republic who want to
trade goods, not guns, across their borders. They want to
replace chaos with commerce, and to use CAFTA as an important
tool of reform that will help deepen and strengthen democracy.
Working closely with the Congress, we have negotiated a
landmark free-trade agreement that will open these large
and growing markets to our goods and services. CAFTA will
level the playing field, helping our workers and farmers
sell to countries that already enjoy virtually unlimited
access to the United States market. The agreement will help
the U.S. textile industry unite with some of its largest
world customers to better compete against imports from China
and other Asian competitors. It contains a focused, results-oriented
strategy that will -- when combined with a strong congressional
commitment to capacity-building -- produce real improvements
in working conditions and environmental protection in the
region. And it handles sensitive commodities with great care.
We believe CAFTA meets the objectives set by Congress in
the Trade Act. It is strongly in the economic and national
interests of the United States. We hope the Congress will
agree that America should not turn its back on struggling
democracies that want a closer economic relationship that
will benefit workers in all our countries. CAFTA makes eminent
sense for America, and for Central America and the Dominican
Republic.
Thank you.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information
Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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