This is very disheartening news, considering our already existing borders problem.

June 30 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Senate approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement today by a vote of 54-45, clearing the second to last hurdle to implementation. The House of Representatives is planning its vote for sometime after July 11.

Today’s vote is the smallest margin for a trade agreement in the normally pro-trade Senate since at least 1993 when senators approved the North American Free Trade Agreement 61-38.

And why is that? That’s because NAFTA has already brought disastrous results, these people think that CAFTA is going to IMPROVE the situation? CAFTA is a “free” trade agreement that includes the United States, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica. The Dominican Republic may also be added to the group. Negotiations for CAFTA were complete in December and January. CAFTA is modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA has been a disaster for small farmers and working people in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, family farms foreclosed, and public interest laws overturned or challenged in secret NAFTA courts. Despite this dismal record, the Bush administration is seeking to expand NAFTA to Central America and the rest of the Western Hemisphere.

From the beginning of CAFTA negotiations, the Bush administration has been clear that completion of CAFTA is crucial to move the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations forward faster, by adding extra pressure to countries like Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina to either accede to U.S. demands, or be left out. CAFTA is NAFTA extended to Central America.

Here is more information on stopping CAFTA.

For people who don’t know what kind of havoc CAFTA is going to rain on us, here are some points worth considering:

* Have negative effects on workers, small farmers, and immigrant communities in the United States;

We know that poor communities in the United States are most harmed by the corrosive effects of free trade. We know that free trade leads to massive job loss in the U.S. as corporations continue to outsource and move factories to countries with the cheapest wages. Unions in the U.S. have opposed CAFTA and the FTAA because of the effects that these agreements have on workers. We know that the loss of family farms in the U.S. has accelerated under liberalized trade rules since 1994. Family farm associations in the U.S. oppose CAFTA precisely because it furthers the same damaging policies.

* Bankrupt millions of small farmers and deprive the people of Central America and the Dominican Republic of the ability to grow their own food;

We know that in the past 10 years 1.5 million small farmers in Mexico have lost their land, as dumping from large multinationals have depressed prices of corn and other grains. And yet, the price of food has not gone down. Indeed, the same multinationals that use their market dominance to lower corn prices own controlling interests in companies such as Maseca that overcharge for corn based products such as tortillas. While the price of food has gone up in Mexico, the country has become a net importer of food and grains.

* Destroy small businesses, making them prey to large national and transnational corporations;

We know that in just the first three years after NAFTA went into effect that twenty-eight thousand small businesses were forced to close in Mexico. The “Walmartization” of the Mexican economy continues; Wal-Mart is currently the largest private employer in Mexico. As a result of the closing of small businesses unemployment and poverty have increased. Indeed, the minimum wage in Mexico has fallen 25% since NAFTA was implemented.

* Particularly hurt women who endure poverty wages and abusive treatment in the maquila sectors;

We know that in the maquila sector of Central America and the Dominican Republic women are consistently the targets of sexual abuse, humiliation, and are denied access to basic health services. We know that wages are so low, they rarely meet mandatory minimums in each country. We know that when women attempt to organize to defend their rights, they are fired. We know that CAFTA contains no provision that will ameliorate this situation, and will in fact remove what limited mechanisms currently exist under U.S. General System of Preferences trade law to address the ongoing crisis. We know that in 10 years since NAFTA passed, women in Mexico have faced the same situation, and that the supposedly stronger labor provisions in NAFTA?s labor side agreement have never been enforced.

* Accelerate the privatization of essential public services, making those resources and services unaffordable;

We know that access to essential services is determined by the price of those services and the availability of infrastructure to deliver them. We know that following years of forced privatization in Central America and the Dominican Republic, prices have gone up, and infrastructure continues to deteriorate. We know that, under CAFTA, additional service sectors such as water and health will be opened further to privatization. We know that life is not possible without access to water, and we do not accept that proposition that health care should only be available to those who can afford it. We know that there is not single example of privatization in Central America or the Dominican Republic that resulted in expanded access to essential services.

* Increase emigration to the United States of people who can not make a living in their home countries;

We know that migration from Mexico doubled in the period from 1994-2000. This sad reality is the direct result of liberalization policies that have destroyed large segments of the rural economy and small businesses. We know that in Central America and the Dominican Republic there is already a crisis of unemployment that has resulted from liberalization policies, and that CAFTA will make these harmful policies permanent.

* Subject natural resources and the very seeds used to plant food to patents by large foreign companies;

We know that Central America is one of the most deforested regions in the world. We know that mining companies pollute ground water, and destroy ecosystems and livelihoods in Central America and the Dominican Republic with impunity already. We know that the genetic heritage of domestic seed strains in the region are already under attack through official seed exchange, and other U.S. supported programs. We know that the further extension of patent rights to natural resources will reduce the access of Central Americans and Dominicans to the most fundamental building blocks of sustainable community life.

* Prevent the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic from forming industrial policies that would lead to real development.

Under CAFTA, governments cannot require investors to use a certain level of domestic content (of locally produced raw materials) in the goods produced in their countries or require investors to transfer technology or productions processes to local citizens. Because of these and other measures, the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic, under CAFTA, would be destined to remain at on the bottom rung of the development ladder.

* Cripple the ability of Governments to insist on national health, safety, environmental and labor protections for our citizens.

We know that in the ten years since NAFTA went into effect that corporations have challenged the enforcement of existing laws and/or the implementation of new public interest laws 30 times under NAFTA?s infamous Chapter 11 investment provisions. We know that the trade panels that review these cases are not accountable to the public. We know that CAFTA contains the same provisions that would allow companies to challenge public interest laws by seeking damages should these laws be enforced. We know that CAFTA actually expands the definition of investment even more broadly, thus ensuring many more cases.

* Restrict access to affordable medicines for those who need them most.

We know that Central America is one of the impoverished regions in the world and that access to basic medicines is essential for survival. We know that U.S. pharmaceutical companies constitute the most profitable sector of the U.S. economy ? under current trade rules. We know that CAFTA will restrict access to generic medicines by forcing governments to recognize and extend patent rights to U.S. pharmaceutical companies beyond those requirements already in place through the World Trade Organization. We know that exceptions granted to impoverished countries under WTO intellectual property rights rules will be superceded by CAFTA for Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. We know that prices for medicines will increase as a result, and thus access to basic medicines will be reduced. We know that many more people will die from preventable diseases as a result.

We ask that all members of Congress recognize the potential devastation that CAFTA holds in store for the people of Central America and the Dominican Republic. We ask that all members of Congress recognize that the further loss of jobs and small farms in the United States that will result from CAFTA is further proof of a failed trade policy agenda. We ask all members of Congress to recognize that the further expansion of rights to transnational corporations is not a path to development for Central America or the Dominican Republic, and erodes the very basis of democracy for all of us. Before we can move forward in a positive direction, with trade policies that address the vast disparities between the United States and the other countries included in CAFTA, Congress must vote “No” on CAFTA.