A Voice for the Voiceless:
Bush's Central American Free Trade Agreement Exploits the Poor, Benefits the Rich

Jennifer DeLury
Witness for Peace International Team, Nicaragua

"I will rise again in the people," said Salvadoran pacifist Archbishop Oscar Romero before he was shot and killed. The man who ordered his murder was trained by U.S. taxpayer dollars-at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas. This March 24, 2002, twenty-two years after Romero's assasination, President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell will be in El Salvador, where they will see that the Archbishop's prophacy was true: his committment to standing with the poor and speaking out against injustice has risen again in the people of Central America.
Thousands of protesters from around the region will take to the streets in San Salvador during the last week in March to celebrate the legacy of Romero and oppose the signing of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), an agreement designed to bring NAFTA-like trade rules to Central America. Like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which the United States signed with Mexico and Canada in 1994, CAFTA prioritizes the profits of foreign investors over labor rights, environmental standards, and other measures that would benefit Central America's poor majority.

CAFTA requires member countries to use their "comparative advantage" to compete in the global market. For poor Central American countries, as for most other poor countries around the world, the only "comparative advantage" they have to offer is a cheap, desperate labor force and vulnerable natural resources. And just as NAFTA did in Mexico, CAFTA will certainly lead to more exploitation of poor workers and the environment in Central America, while benefitting the multinational corporations whose profit margin depends on cheap labor and lax environmental standards.

Like NAFTA, and the hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which is also currently under negotiation, CAFTA's terms of trade are designed to prioritize export crops over local food production. This destroys local markets for basic food goods and threatens the food security of small and impoverished nations like El Salvador and Nicaragua. Although this transition to export-oriented agriculture is already happening throughout Central America, CAFTA will help accelerate the process.

Central American countries that further shift their agricultural production to export crops will be more dependent on food imports from the north, and more vulnerable to the fluctuating world market prices that they will receive for their export commodities. Central American small and medium-sized farmers do not have access to private financing or state subsidies, and therefore will not be able to compete with large corporate farms from the north. Unable to make a living on their land, these farmers will be forced to emigrate to cities or to other countries-like the United States-in search of work.

Those who oppose CAFTA also reject the undemocratic process through which "free trade" agreements are signed. In the aftermath of September 11, the House of Representatives narrowly voted to grant President Bush "Fast Track" authority, which would allow Bush to negotiate trade agreements such as CAFTA without consulting the general population or considering input from Congress. The Senate is expected to follow suit as soon as next month. Under pressure from leaders representing the most powerful government to the north, Central American heads of state have little choice but to become accomplices in an agreement-signing process that is anything but transparent. The inherently undemocratic "Fast Track" authority would help further a trade negotiation process that takes place behind closed doors, where corporate interests triumph over the needs of the world's poor. Labor, environmental and citizen/consumer groups will be barred from the negotiations, while the door is open to corporations and lobbyists.

The Bush administration has declared that the signing of CAFTA within the next year and a half is a top priority, and Bush will take advantage of his "Fast Track" authority, if it is granted, to further this goal. By creating a Central-North American "free trade" bloc, the Bush administration hopes to have more clout with which to pursuade South American countries-especially Argentina and Brazil, who have voiced concerns about the terms of such "free trade" agreements-into joining the FTAA.

Over 22 years ago, Archbishop Oscar Romero also said, "Let those who have a voice speak for the voiceless." As thousands of Central Americans gather in prayer and protest in El Salvador, let us in the north use our voices to join the chorus opposing all "free trade" agreements that do not promote the social and economic welfare of human beings as their central objective. Economic growth is otherwise meaningless. In the name of Romero, we must commit ourselves to opposing "Fast Track" and working towards international trade agreements that strengthen workers rights, protect the environment, prioritize the needs of the poor majority over the profits of a handful of corporations, and that are created through a participatory, transparent and democratic process.