Skip to main content

Bishop provides CAFTA swing vote, responds to concerns

I found this interesting. It brings up some of the concerns expressed here by Aaron, but at the same time, Bishop identifies some key aspects that made it compelling--mainly the foreign policy aspect of CAFTA. As I have said, not being a lawyer makes it dificult for me to understand the intricacies of this legislation, but it is my hope it does what it has been promised to do.

"This is a referendum on our foreign policy more than it is on our free trade," Bishop said in a prepared statement Thursday.

Bishop was joined with a yea vote by his Utah House colleagues, representatives Chris Cannon, also a Republican, and Democrat Jim Matheson.

The two-page statement outlined Bishop's concerns about the trade agreement and his belief that the agreement is also a fight against communism in Central America controlled by Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

"No other potential trade agreement will have an anti-communist component," he said.

Bishop compared this agreement with others from the past -- he voted against the World Trade Organization and the Australia Trade Agreement -- and those in the future: "I also see no reason to support (Free Trade Area of the Americas)."

However, Bishop said CAFTA is a way for the United States to develop "inter-governmental cooperation."

Some more good points and responses to common concerns:

"In CAFTA, foreign citizens cannot sue an American state. State laws cannot be overturned without state agreement," he said.

"I will note that there will be markets opened to Utah companies, but the studies indicate that the amount of trade Utah does or is projected to do in this region is minimal."

In addressing job concerns, Bishop also said it would be better to purchase something from Central America "with 80 percent of the material produced in the U.S. than a shirt from China with less than 5 percent of the material U.S.-produced."

Tagged:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Al Cardenas Comments on Univision Democrat Forum

Al Cardenas is Chairman of Romney for President's Hispanic Steering Committee. I got the following email from the campaign. Boston, MA – Al Cardenas, the Chairman of Romney for President's National Hispanic Steering Committee, issued the following statement regarding tonight's Democrat presidential forum on Univision: "Tonight's Univision forum demonstrated once again the consequences that a President Clinton, President Obama or President Edwards would have on the Hispanic community.  Whether it's tax increases for families and the two million Hispanic business owners, socialist-style health care, coddling dictators, opposing free trade with our allies or putting family values last, the Democrat presidential candidates made clear how out of sync their policies are with the best interests of the Hispanic community. Mitt Romney has put in the effort to reach out to this vital bloc, and, after watching tonight's debate
Post a Comment
Read more

Harry Potter Mania -- Discussion

There is a great discussion going on at WorldMagBlog on the whole Harry Potter mania. Nothing to do with Latinos, I suppose, but I thought I would ad my two cents. A reader commented: I think its interesting how much people want to be in a group that is all connected by some common thread. It says a lot about our desire for homogeny, not always along racial, sexual or religious lines, but also simply based on what we do in our spare time. The interesting thing about Harry Potter fans vs. Star Trek fans is that a vast majority of them are kids who have grown up with the books, or the parents of said kids. I wonder if what sort of effects this will have on them as they get older (and whether or not they will remain HP fans). We live in an obsessive culture. Posted by David B. at July 22, 2005 07:54 AM This is an interesting phenomenon. I would think it is indicative of our society, more than anything else. I tend to agree with the idea that it shows a desire or need for communi
Post a Comment
Read more

Communism: Good Money for the "El Viejo"

I guess Fidel Castro is doing ok . Forbes lists Castro as one of the richest in the world, right up there with the Queen of England. I bet he didn't like the attention. It was hard to figure it out, but it seems they managed to throw some numbers together. In the past, we have relied on a percentage of Cuba's gross domestic product to estimate Fidel Castro's fortune. This year we have used more traditional valuation methods, comparing state-owned assets Castro is assumed to control with comparable publicly traded companies. A reasonable discount was then applied to compensate for the obvious disclosure issues.
1 comment
Read more