USTR Announces 3-Step Program to Boost CAFTA Labor Provisions
June 12, 2005
On June 9, US Trade Representative Rob Portman announced a 3-step program to back up what he called the "strong" labor provisions in CAFTA. He announced that he would work with Congress to organize an international donor conference, secure more US funds to help CAFTA countries improve their labor enforcement, and explore benchmarks for verifying that that countries are improving their labor rights enforcement. The proposals were not specific and did not announce any specific funding, although a Senate aide said that it would be very difficult for the USTR to obtain any appropriated funds for labor rights as such a request would require the backing of the administration as a whole.
Although the proposal was intended to gain support for CAFTA among Democrats, the proposal was widely rejected by Democrats. Representative Sander Levin of Michigan said the proposal fails to address the fact that the CAFTA countries fail to live up to labor standards set in place by the International Labor Organization. The AFL-CIO also rejected the proposal in a press release as being "half-truths and empty promises."