Opponents critique the first several months of CAFTA

Opponents of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), released a report today illustrating what they believe are the negative effects of the implementation of the treaty. The Stop CAFTA Coalition released its report
DR-CAFTA in Year One with sections detailing the consequences of implementation of the agreement in every country where it is in effect. (Costa Rica has not yet ratified the treaty). Some of the impacts pointed out in El Salvador include growing levels of food imports from the US, a decline in the textile sector, controversy over harsh application of intellectual property laws to informal sellers of CDs and DVDs, and concerns over the privatization of water.

While I also opposed CAFTA, I feel compelled to point out that this report does not purport to be an objective review of the economic evidence and that many problems described in the report pre-date CAFTA, or are caused by other factors such as the elimination of textile quotas which had constrained competition from China in the past.