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Subject: [es-solidarity] [Fwd: [cafta-talk] English version of Honduran letter on CAFTA]
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [cafta-talk] English version of Honduran letter on CAFTA
Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 14:56:01 -0400
From: Karen Hansen-Kuhn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
English version of Honduran letter on CAFTA
To the United States People and Members of Congress
Free trade effectively began in Honduras in 1990. It has led to the massive closure of local agricultural and industrial businesses, causing unemployment of more than a million people, the majority of whom were compelled to illegally migrate to the United States, join the informal economy or engage in criminal activities. Just 130,000 found precarious jobs in the maquiladoras. Poverty increased to 80%; the gap between rich and poor grew; imports increased to twice as much as exports; the foreign debt nearly doubled; the balance of payments deficit rapidly increased; and corruption and citizens' insecurity increased. How can you approve a free-trade agreement that will worsen the Honduran people's economic and social conditions and those of people whose governments have ratified the accord behind their backs and against their will?
The Honduran popular organizations endorsing this letter write to the U.S. people and Members of Congress in reference to the so-called free-trade agreement among the countries of Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States (DR-CAFTA) to express the following concerns:
1. Free trade was imposed on usas a condition of so-called "development assistance", with the promisethat we would export more, there would be more employment; we wouldreceive massive foreign investment; we would rise out of poverty andindigence; and democracy would be strengthened; and that all of thiswould occur with respect for our sovereignty. To the contrary, thishas only brought greater failures:
· 14 years later, we were officiallyclassified as a highly indebted poor country.
· Accumulated inflation in the 14 years sincetrade liberalization began is 186%.
· The National Industrial Association (AsociaciónNacional de Industriales - ANDI) has declared the bankruptcy of threebusinesses a day because of the measures imposed under the name of"development assistance".
· The bankruptcy of many small, mediumand large agricultural businesses has contributed to increased foodinsecurity and unemployment of more than a million people, while themaquiladoras absorbed just 130,000.
· Foreign debt increased from just overUS$3 billion in 1990 to more than US$5 billion today. The tendencytowards indebtedness will continue due to the fact that the countryimports double what it exports.
· Monetary liberalization has resultedin capital flight and has not brought massive investment.
· Under trade liberalization, poverty andindigence in Honduras have increased to 80% of the population, out of atotal of approximately 7 million people.
· Official and private corruption havereached unprecedented levels as a result of privatization, fiscal fraudand the sale of passports to people from other countries to travel tothe United States.
2. Under "free trade agreements"the winners are transnational corporations, not the U.S. or Honduranpeople. The enormous unemployment in Honduras makes it impossible toapply national labor laws or International Labor Organization (ILO)conventions, and hunger compels workers to accept the labor conditionsimposed in the maquiladoras, including temporary contracts andunreachable production quotas with tendencies toward enslavement. DR-CAFTA would legalize these practices because its labor chapter isnot categorical, it is ambiguous, and speaks partially of some rightswithout guaranteeing any of them.
3. DR-CAFTA would not only makework in Honduras precarious, it would also do so in the United States,since many workers from the countries signing DR-CAFTA would continueto be expelled to the United States, thus increasing the labor supplyof immigrants and directly affecting the labor force in your country.
4. Central America integrationwould be weakened under DR-CAFTA. One of the effects of the accordwould be the near elimination of intra-regional trade with theconsequent closure of local businesses, whose operations would be takenover by transnational corporations. This would further increaseunemployment and illegal migration to the United States.
5. Some Central AmericanPresidents are campaigning for DR-CAFTA, telling U.S. Members ofCongress that the agreement would stimulate trade and investment andthat it would benefit our people. To the contrary of what thesepresidents, and particularly the President of Honduras, are saying, theHonduran social movement expresses its rejection of DR-CAFTA because ofits negative consequences and because it was negotiated, approved andratified in an anti-democratic manner and behind the backs of thepeople.
Tegucigalpa, 11 May 2005
Bloque Popular
Red de Comercialización Comunitaria Alternativa
Consejo Coordinador de Organizaciones Campesinas
Centro de Derechos de Mujeres
Coalición Hondureña de Acción Ciudadana
Foro Social de la Deuda Externa
Concejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de
Honduras
Unión de Trabajadores del Campo
Asociación para el Desarrollo de Honduras
Coordinadora Nacional de Resistencia Popular
Asociación de Organizaciones No Gubernamentales
********************************************************
Karen Hansen-Kuhn
The Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART)
c/o The Development GAP
927 15th Street, NW - 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Tel: 202-898-1566
Fax: 202-898-1612
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.art-us.org <www.art-us.org>
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