[PEN-L:30487] Comments on CAFTA etc.

["F G" <cantthinkofahandle@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From what I've read in the U.S. press, there seems to be silence with
respect to the forthcoming CAFTA.  Here in El Salvador, it has demogogically
been sold as a panacea (ditto with dollarization) to a population that
hardly understands what is involved.  The central government has generated
quite alot of confusion as well, having managed to convince sectors of the
business community that the agreement would be in their interests when it
probably is not.  Unfortunately I missed an opportunity to attend a talk
given by an economist/negotiator at a university so that I could hear the
theoretical rationalizations.  I think it would be good to monitor the
progress of the CAFTA on pen-l.
   The absurd and infantile enthusiasm displayed by the government when the
possibility of a "free trade" (read:investment and intellectual property
rights protection agreement) agreement was announced (Not to mention the
passing of TPA.  The press and national gov. "forgot" to mention that
negotiation is possible _without_ TPA.  Anyway this government hardly cares
to negotiate as much as it would like to sign whatever is sent their way by
the U.S. Trade Reps) is part of a larger grotesquely pro-imperial position.
As the Central American University's publication "Processo" notes, the
policy of submission to the United States by President Flores is almost
explicit.  This is the same "nationalist" ruling party that dollarized the
economy and allowed a "counterdrug" base to be set up by the U.S. and we
have a vice president who seems to spend more time promoting an false image
of E.S. in the United States than he does here.  The president was also
chosen to appear before the G-8 and is considered by the White House to be a
"key" partner in promoting a Central American Trade Agreement (IOW, the
country is to be utilized as a regional proxy for U.S. policy goals).
    Though mentioned several times in speeches by U.S. spokespeople as a
"free market success story", the country has had anemic growth for the last
5 years and desperation amongst the middle class and many rural workers is
clear.  Violent crime is extremely high, inflation has chewed away and
estimated 14% of purchasing power over the last 4 years when the min. wage
has been frozen, the semi privatized electrical sector and privatized
telephone companies continue hiking rates and formal sector employment is
probably around 50%.  Even the narrow goals of the export-oriented
neoliberal model are a grand failure.  Non-traditional exports outside of
Central America as a percentage of GDP has _dropped_ over the last 13 years
of neoliberal policy (but tax breaks and subsidies to oligarquic companies
exporting non-traditional goods outside of C.A. _continue to this day_).
Foreign investment is very low, possibly (but don't quote me on this) the
lowest proportional level in Central America.  Social investment is amongst
the lowest in Latin America as a percentage of the budget and the tax/GDP
ratio is AFAIK the second lowest just behind Guatemala.
The rest of Central Am. is hardly in a "peachy" state either and this fact
is cynically manipulated by the national gov..  We are fine, apparently
because everyone else is so screwed...

More later, since I must be leaving
-Frank G.

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