Everyone Should Support CAFTA

Why the Central American Free Trade Agreement hasn't received overwhelming support is beyond me. Conservatives who believe in efficient markets and free trade should love the reduction of tariffs. Democrats who after 9/11 claimed that the attacks were caused partly by our ignorance of the poverty in third world countries should love that we are addressing a problem to raise the wealth of poorer nations. Even protectionists who are afraid of losing jobs overseas should love it because at least the products made in Central America (vs. China) would likely use American materials. As David Keene points out,

If you buy a shirt today that was made in Honduras or Nicaragua, there is a greater than 70 percent chance that it is made of U.S.-produced fabric; the chance that a competing product from China would be made of U.S. components is less than one-tenth of 1 percent.

Even Jimmy Carter gets it! He told lawmakers that the pact is important to help protect and promote democracy in the Western hemisphere. Absent the looney left's absurd notion that Central Americans really oppose CAFTA, the deal is a no-brainer to Left and Right alike.

Yet for some reason the bill seems unlikely to have the support necessary to pass Congress. What a shame.