[mgj-discuss] CAFTA to prohibit fair trade goods produced by NGOs and producer cooperatives

[David Levy]

>Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 11:46:33 -0500
>From: Jim Goronson <usessc1 at charterinternet.net>
>Subject: [cafta-talk] CAFTA and Fair Trade
>
>As if we didn't already have enough reasons to oppose CAFTA check out this paragraph from page 3 of the excellent "Why We Say No to CAFTA" analysis on the Development GAP's website that was published in March (http://art-us.org/docs/cafta304.pdf):
>*
>Fair Trade products denied market access
>*
>In CAFTA’s Chapter 3 on National Treatment and Market Access for Goods there is a provision that would discriminate against products by non-government organizations and producer cooperatives or their delegated representatives: “No Party may allocate any portion of a TRQ [Tariff-Rate Quota] to producer groups or non-governmental organizations or delegate administration of a TRQ to producer groups or organizations....” Astonishingly, this clause actually forbids governments from allocating a portion of their tariff quotas to traders of commodities like fair trade coffee. To our knowledge, this is the first regional trade agreement to discriminate explicitly against a class of traders, and would allow agribusiness cartels to use CAFTA as a tool to quash competition from fair trade products. Apparently, from the perspective of the Bush Administration, Free Trade means “freeing” multinational agribusiness cartels from legitimate competition especially from fairly traded products!
>
>--Is this what Zoellick means when he refers to CAFTA as a "state of the art" trade agreement?? I had not heard about/read this until this past weekend. In any event please spread the word to fair trade organizations/activists/enthusiasts/consumers/congressional reps. Please forgive me if this has already been brought up--I lost a ton of recent emails yesterday.
>
>Peace,
>Jim
>USESSC