Plantation News

US signs new agreements.

# CAFTA will make certain existing sweatshops enforce only their own labor laws, although they currently fall below international labor standards.
# Any fines for labor violations will be paid by the country to itself.
# Because the minimum wage in Central America is even lower than in Mexico, competition will continue to move jobs out of the U.S. and push wages lower throughout the region.
# CAFTA, like NAFTA in Mexico, puts Central American farmers against subsidized U.S. agribusiness.
# Grain prices will fall in Central America, forcing small subsistence workers off their farms and into shantytown cities where unemployment is already high, and eventually to the U.S.
# CAFTA will be used to weaken environmental standards. Companies would have the right to sue any government that obstructs their profit with environmental regulations. The link above assures us that "agreements are aimed at strengthening environmental protection." Sure.

# Harken Oil Company is demanding $57 billion from Costa Rica on the grounds that the country's environmental laws, which halted the oil company's exploration, interfere with their investor rights. Under CAFTA, this case would be tried in an international tribunal rather than national courts. Harken vs Costa Rica
# Mexico: 1.5 million Mexican campesino farmers estimated to have lost their livelihoods under NAFTA's agricultural terms. Honduran workers producing goods for the U.S. market average 0.90 cents per hour wage.