ISDS Case Map
CAFTA
US - Central America Free Trade Agreement
The Pork Industry Association, president Jose Alba, considered that not entering the Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) in January 2006 would be a welcomed break for the productive sector. This grace period, in his view, would be well-used to correct distortions in the tax system and enable competitiveness.
Entrepreneurs and economists trust that the Free Trade Agreement with Central America and the United States (DR-CAFTA) will in effect start as scheduled in January 2006.
It is still unclear whether the DR-Central America and US Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) will start in January 2006, and if it does, most of the Central American countries lag in preparation to enter commercial activity.
President Bush is starting to embrace a different political strategy for getting trade agreements through Congress: bipartisanship.
Democratic members of Congress and labor leaders say they want the Bush administration to move away from CAFTA's failed trade model or face another tough battle in Congress.
Officials at the highest level along with private business persons from El Salvador are currently on tours that have been denominated as “CAFTA-Tours” throughout the United States, looking to attract investments, in addition to participating in work shops to train exporters on how to best benefit from markets to open with DR-CAFTA.
Associations in the Dominican farming sector today rejected some of the measures recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and requested from the government to establish a program to shore the sector up, prior to implementing the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States.
This CRS report for US Congress analyses some of the
challenges that became apparent in the aftermath of a divisive trade debate and how they
could affect consideration of future trade agreements.
"We think his policies are totally contrary to what we want for Latin America and are promoting genocide, domination of workers and their communities and the plundering of natural resources," said Argentine labor leader Juan Gonzalez, who is heading a protest "People's Summit" coinciding with Bush's visit Thursday through Saturday.
The Dominican Republic has until 15 November to approve reforms stipulated by the Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Central America (CAFTA-DR), or it will not be able to participate as of January 2006, the launch date for the accord.
