July 30, 2005
WHAT DEMOCRATS OPPOSED:
CAFTA Expected to Benefit U.S. Consumers (MARTIN CRUTSINGER, 7/30/05, AP)
U.S. shoppers should get a price break on shirts and pants made in Central America. American farmers and manufacturers are hoping to gain new sales in the region. U.S. sugar growers, however, are fretting about increased competition now that Congress has passed and sent to the president a trade deal that eliminates barriers between the United States and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.Posted by Orrin Judd at July 30, 2005 5:22 PM
How could shirts from Central America get any cheaper?
It's amazing that the sugar industry is so powerful. They were the strongest opponents to annexing Hawaii over 100 years ago! And Hawaii has long since stopped growing sugar in any significant amount...
Posted by: b at July 30, 2005 5:26 PMThe sugar industry is so powerful partially because the government program is so lucrative. Since the amount of money they make from the government program is so large, they're willing to spend a tremendous amount of money to maintain it.
Posted by: John Thacker at July 30, 2005 6:00 PMThe biggest work in shirts assembled in Central America has to do with collar sewing and other things which are hard to mechanized. Mechanized fabric production and the like takes place in the US. Central American countries tend to use US fabric. Chinese factories tend to use Pakistani or Chinese fabric, among other places.
Putting tariffs on shirts assembled from US fabric really made sense to no one, not even the protectionists.
Posted by: John Thacker at July 30, 2005 6:02 PMNR had a good article a few weeks ago on how badly the sugar industry has screwed the US consumer. If I remember the article correctly CAFTA would have very little impact on the sugar industry but it would at least be a start in the right direction.
The Dems handed the GOP another issue in '06 as the GOP can accurately portray the Dems as anti-free trade and anti Central America.
Posted by: AWW at July 30, 2005 6:47 PMAmericans pay about 4 times the world price for sugar. That's why Coca Cola and other products use high fructose corn syrup instead.
Posted by: bart at July 30, 2005 7:58 PMDon't get me started on the sugar barons.
Posted by: Sandy P at July 30, 2005 9:25 PMAttn:John Thacker
While I agree with you on CAFTA, your explaination is flawed.
Collar along with pocket, cuff,yoke, flap and placket automation is 25-30 years old and very common in Central American shirt plants.
Also..while Central America once purchased the majority of fabric from the US, that is history now.
Many mills have already been built in C.A. and there will be a glut of mills built now that CAFTA has passed.
I know this because I've been in most of the shirt plants in Central America and work in this industry.
The biggest loser with passage of CAFTA is Asia.
The US has already lost these jobs with the passage of NAFTA . Central America will hang on to many jobs that would normally gone to China and other Asian countries.
Central America does purchase the bulk of their capital equipment in the US as opposed to China which does not honor US patent rights and simply copy US amnufactured equipment and sells them at a fraction of free world prices in Asian markets.