NAFTA, CAFTA and SHAFTA

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Hundreds of jobs at Florida Crystals in South Bay, FL could be
wiped out by unfair trade deals like CAFTA. Local 2152
members process sugar into dozens of consumer products.
Front row from left, Enrique Herrera, Consuelo Calderon, 
Jorge M. Huertas Jr. Back row from left, Mark Antoine,
Henry Grizzle and Remberto Rubio.


The proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) will devastate
the 1,500 IAM members and their families working in South Florida’s sugar industry and communities. The disastrous effects won’t end there. “CAFTA will crush the sugar industry in the United States,” said Southern Territory GVP Bob Martinez.

CAFTA is a so-called “free” trade agreement modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that includes the United States, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica. Like NAFTA it will be disastrous for agriculture, small farmers and working people in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, family farms foreclosed, and public interest laws overturned or challenged in secret NAFTA courts. Despite this dismal record, the Bush Administration wants to expand NAFTA to Central America and the rest of the Western Hemisphere.

Continued job loss isn’t the only problem with agreements like CAFTA. “The use of child labor is rampant in planting and harvesting sugar cane,” said Michael Bochenek, in a report on El Salvadorian child labor from Human Rights Watch. Children begin wielding foot-long machetes at the age of five. The average cane worker's salary is about $75 a month.


Orlando Rodriguez with one of many Florida Crystals sugar products.

A look at today’s gas prices shows the dangers of becoming dependent on foreign producers for basic commodities like oil and sugar. Trade agreements modeled after NAFTA will push the U.S. toward dependence on foreign food supplies as well.

Additional imports from the CAFTA countries will flood the U.S. market, forcing whole states or regions to exit the sugar business.

From the beginning of CAFTA negotiations, the Bush administration made clear that completion of CAFTA is crucial to move the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations forward. CAFTA was signed on May 28, 2004 and a vote on the agreement will occur before the November election.

The White House has 60 days to send the legislation to Congress, which then has 90 days to consider it. Thanks to the so-called “Fast Track” trade bill passed last year, members of Congress can only cast a “yes” or “no” vote on such trade deals. No amendments can be added.


U.S. Sugar produces more than ten  percent of America’s sugar products. CAFTA puts more than 1,000 jobs at U.S. Sugar’s giant operation in Clewiston, FL in jeopardy, including Local 57 members Preston Thompson, left, and Angela Pourch.