Costa Rica to Take Historic Vote on CAFTA

by James Parks, Oct 7, 2007

U.S. workers opposed CAFTA because it would destroy good jobs here and in Central America.

Today, the people of Costa Rica will go to the polls for a historic vote on whether their country will ratify the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, (DR-CAFTA).

Costa Rica is the only one of the seven signers that has not ratified the deal, which is modeled after the seriously flawed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Supported by the AFL-CIO and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), a strong coalition of workers’ unions, farmers, human and civil rights activists and community leaders are leading a massive campaign to vote “no” on the deal. On Sept. 30, more than 100,000 people marched in the capital San José to protest CAFTA, one of the largest protests in the history of Costa Rica.  

A recent poll found that 55 percent of those polled said they opposed the agreement, while 43 percent supported it, according to the newspaper La Nacion. A minimum of 40 percent of Costa Rica’s 2.6 million voters must participate for the poll to be valid.

Opposition to CAFTA has been growing ever since a government campaign of dirty tricks was exposed, Mark Weisbrot, writes in a column published on Alternet.  

…things have been moving rapidly towards “no” since an embarrassing high-level government memo was leaked a few weeks ago. The memo, as the Los Angeles Times described it, “outlined a campaign of dirty tricks intended to sway voters. This included telling mayors that their cities would “not get a penny from the government for the next three years” if they did not deliver a majority of voters for CAFTA. In the words of the memo, the government also needed to “stimulate fear” among the voters, including “fear of the loss of jobs.”

Costa Rica is the plum prize in CAFTA for the corporations. CAFTA would open the door for privatizing Costa Rica’s telecommunications and insurance markets, both of which are publicly run today. If the people of Costa Rica reject CAFTA, some analysts say it would mark a turning point in the struggle against the corporate-led trade model promoted by the United States and strengthen efforts in the region to roll back these agreements.

Guy Ryder, general secretary of the ITUC, says:

The proposed agreement fails to take account of the impact DR-CAFTA stands to have on workers’ rights and other decent work issues. It is extremely likely that an acceleration of trade flows between both regions will further erode respect for core labor standards. It is, in fact, already extremely difficult for workers in Central America and the Dominican Republic to organize into trade unions, as would-be members face intimidation, threats, dismissal and blacklisting.

The workers’ position is backed up by a Washington Post article in March, where reporter Peter Goodman wrote:  

Nearly two years have passed since the countries of Central America vowed to strengthen worker rights as they sought votes in Congress for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. Yet there has been little if any progress, according to diplomats, labor inspectors, workers and managers. 

“The situation is the same now as it was,” said Homero Fuentes, director of the Commission for the Verification of Codes of Conduct, a Guatemalan group hired by multinational companies to inspect local factories and plantations. “The law hasn’t been reformed, and people just don’t obey the law. There’s a culture of impunity.” 

AFL-CIO Legislation Director William Samuel wrote to members of Congress, pointing out the Post article. He told lawmakers the article illustrates a message working families have been delivering for years. The message is that the model for U.S. trade deals such as CAFTA and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) before it has failed to improve working conditions anywhere. Click here to read the full Post article and here to read Samuel’s letter.  

In a blatant attempt to influence the vote, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab issued a statement Oct. 4 implying that if the people of Costa Rica reject the trade agreement, the Bush administration would withdraw preferred trade status from Costa Rica. In the statement, which echoes comments by U.S. Ambassador Mark Langdale, Schwab says:

Certain benefits that the United States provides under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), including those benefiting Costa Rica’s textiles and tuna industries, are scheduled to expire next year. The fact is, the United States has never faced a situation where one of our trading partners rejects a reciprocal trade agreement with the United States, but continues to seek unilateral trade preferences.

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) wrote Langdale’s boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, reminding her that such interference in Costa Rica’s electoral politics violates U.S., Costa Rican and international law. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also wrote letters to Costa Rica’s ambassador saying access to U.S. markets under the CBI are not conditioned on acceptance of any trade agreement.

But the bullying tactics are not working, says Tom Loudon, who is blogging from Costa Rica for the Alliance for Responsible Trade. Loudon reports tremendous activity by a wide coalition of ordinary citizens and workers to reject CAFTA. 

Costa Rica is buzzing with ‘referendum fever.’ It is lit up almost as if there were a presidential election. What is clear so far, from the propaganda we have seen in the streets is that in the capital, the vote on the referendum will be overwhelmingly ‘no.’  

(At) the hub of the ‘no’ campaign for the San Carlos municipality, a clear picture emerged of the level of popular support present in this struggle….Running the office is a dairy farmer and veterinarian, the campaign leader has taken this week as his vacation, to dedicate all of his time to coordinating the final days of the campaign and overseeing the observers and vote counting process.  He is one of the 35-40 volunteers just in this office, who are the flesh and bones of this campaign. There are no paid workers!

Another example of the strong opposition to CAFTA in Costa Rica, Loudon says, is that when “no” vote organizers asked for 12,000 volunteers to observe the voting process, more than 29,000 people signed up.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)