CAFTA Fight in US Congress

The various factions are beginning to prepare for the CAFTA ratification fight in the US Congress. You can tell from the variety of press stories starting to appear on a regular basis.

All of the stories predict a very close battle in the U.S. Congress. As this article points out, Democrats are expected to line up squarely against the pact and the powerful sugar industry may sway enough Republican votes to prevent passage. The sugar interests fear the provisions which would allow greater imports of sugar into the US. (These are the parallel to the fears of those in Central America who fear that cheap imports of corn from the subsidized US agricultural sector will harm the small rural farmer).

The CAFTA debate is presented from the business point of view on Bloomberg.com. Why does it not give me comfort that the spokesmen in favor of CAFTA quoted in this article are from Caterpillar Industries, Proctor & Gamble, and the American Insurance Association?

For those of you who want to study the actual language of the treaty, the final text of CAFTA is online.