Bush Fails to Push for CAFTA at Speech to Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
April 20, 2005
At his speech today at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, widely expected to be a key speech in the Bush administration's push for CAFTA, Bush chose not to push strongly for Hispanic support of CAFTA. Rather than laying out a detailed case for the passage of CAFTA, President Bush instead limiting his comments to "We need to continue to knock down trade barriers across the world so we can open up new markets for America's entrepreneurs. To create jobs and to strengthen democracy in our hemisphere, the Congress needs to pass the Central American Free Trade Agreement." The Bush administration instead used Secretary of Commerce, Carlos M. Gutierrez to argue its case for CAFTA. Gutierrez argued that CAFTA will increase prosperity in the United States and Central America, even going so far as to claim that "CAFTA means more jobs for American workers." As would be expected, he provided little information to back up his claims.