Early effects of CAFTA
CAFTA a year in: impact more ideological than economic
Katherine Glover
Medill News Service
May 31, 2007
This article deals with the effects of the Central American Free Trade Agreement on the United States, specifically Illinois, during the first year CAFTA was implemented.
The economic impact was minimal – Illinois exports to El Salvador actually dropped slightly, while imports to Costa Rica, which had not ratified CAFTA, increased. But both opponents and supporters of CAFTA acknowledged that the trade agreement was extremely important as an ideological step.
I also tried to put in some perspective about what trade agreements are and are not.
Although the debate is often mistakenly portrayed as a battle between those who support increased trade and those who don’t, in reality, the conflict is in the details.
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“It’s a managed trade agreement,” [Robert] Scott [with the Economic Policy Institute] said. “There’s no such thing as a ‘free trade’ agreement that’s 2000 pages long. You’d just need a few pages to say: there’s a free trade area, there’s no tariffs or restrictions on trade, period, stop.”