Former US Trade Representative Zoellick on CAFTA
May 19, 2005
Earlier this week, former US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick delivered a speech to the Heritage Foundation outlining how he believes CAFTA will bring democracy to Central America. According to Zoellick, the people of Central America "fought and struggled, and many died" for democracy and they are now "asking the United States to secure the work of democracy" by passing CAFTA. While much of Zoellick's speech if full of historical inaccuracies and distortions, he does understand that the underlying goal of CAFTA is to "promote America's strategic interests." Aside from the aforementioned items, Zoellick provided the standard arguments for CAFTA--that it will help the region, that protectionist unions are the primary opposition to the agreement, and that the sugar industry does not understand the agreement--all of which have been addressed by opponents of CAFTA many times before.