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From: Ernest Baynard[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 10:23:17 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Thanksgiving comes early for Pro CAFTA lobbyists in the form of 700K U.S. AID "Turkey"
Importance: High
Auto forwarded by a Rule
I guess Thanksgiving came
early this year for CAFTA lobbyists and the U.S. Chamber- see below!
National Journal - Congress Daily PM
TRADE
Democrats
Question Grant To Central American Biz Groups
A
group of 21 House Democrats is questioning the propriety of a $700,000 U.S.
Agency for International Development grant to Central American business groups,
which they said could be used to lobby Congress and U.S. citizens to support
ratification of the trade deal between the United States and five Central
American countries next year. They have asked USAID Inspector General James
Ebbit to investigate the grant, which according to a spokeswoman for Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, was awarded Nov. 11
in Guatemala City to a business group called Caribbean-Central America Action,
which plans to use it to establish the Alliance for CAFTAction. That group will include American Chambers of
Commerce in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "The grant raises
a question of appropriateness, particularly with regard to U.S. Chamber of
Commerce participation, since investment promotion missions to the U.S. to
encourage relocation are prohibited under [USAID bylaws]," Brown and other
House Democrats wrote Ebbit on Friday. Ebbit did not return a call seeking
comment by presstime.
The Democrats also noted that a provision in last
year's Foreign Operations appropriations bill prohibits USAID from providing
funds that offer an incentive for U.S. companies to relocate overseas. They
claim that implementation of the Central America Free Trade Agreement would
cause the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs as more global companies set up in
the Central American region. Federico Sacasa, executive director of Caribbean
Central America Action, said none of the funds will be used in the United States, nor will they be used
to lobby for passage of CAFTA. "This is about mobilizing the [Central
American] region and educating people in the region about the realities of free
trade versus protectionism, of which CAFTA is the catalyst in the debate,"
said Sacasa. He said the Alliance will focus on organizing business leaders in support of CAFTA,
educating workers on its benefits and smoothing future implementation of the
deal by studying how to harmonize standards between the five countries. Neither
the United States nor any Central American country has yet ratified CAFTA.
In other trade-related developments, efforts to
pass a bill expanding trade benefits for impoverished Haiti fell apart late
last week because of Senate reluctance to endorse a compromise worked out by House Ways and Means Chairman Thomas and
ranking member Charles Rangel,
D-N.Y. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio,
was working to resolve the concerns of Sen. Jeff
Sessions, R-Ala., about new duty-free access for knit apparel. But
several other senators, in addition to Sessions, had not signed on to the
compromise, putting unanimous consent out of reach, Senate sources said. Even
though senators earlier this year had gone along with unanimous consent on a
DeWine-authored bill that was more generous in its benefits than the House
legislation, a few of them last week experienced "buyers' remorse,"
according to one Senate GOP aide.
-- by Martin Vaughan
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