Bush backers admit: CAFTA not a free trade pact.

In a May 31 White House press conference, President Bush declared that there is a "geopolitical, as well as economic, concern for CAFtA"--specifically, the need to "support young democracies [in the region]. And that's going to be important." Implicit in that claim is the idea that CAFTA--rather than being a "free" trade pact--is actually a disguised form of foreign aid intended to benefit the governments of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. This in turn would mean that those governments would be exporting to the U.S., rather than importing more goods produced here.

As THE NEW AMERICAN has repeatedly pointed out, Republican proponents of CAFTA invariably recite some version of the administration's argument that the agreement is needed to support "young democracies" in the region--without admitting what this portends for our own economic health. Confirmation of our analysis is now available in a remarkably candid pro-CAFTA essay published by the Center for Security Policy (CSP), a Washington-based think-tank closely aligned with the Bush administration.

In a June 2 "Decision Brief" entitled "The National Security Case for CAFTA," the CSP dispenses altogether with the idea that the agreement has anything to do with expanding U.S. trade or enhancing our economy. "The truth of the matter is that the CAFTA region ... accounts for an almost imperceptible fraction of U.S. trade," writes the CSP, conceding a point we have made on many occasions. However, the impoverished region does export a huge number of illegal immigrants to the United States.

Rather than compelling the federal government to carry out its constitutional mandate to protect our borders, continues the CSP, Washington should find some way to transfer wealth to the CAFTA governments. "CAFTA would help create jobs in the region--especially in the area's much sought-after maquiladora assembly industry as well as future industrial development--affording many Central Americans an opportunity to stay home with their families," the group asserts.

This would mean creating another huge magnet drawing manufacturing jobs south--and further erosion of our own manufacturing base and middle class economy.