Juanson World

In addition to a few barbs thrown at the French, Tom Friedman gives the usual reasons for supporting CAFTA. He makes one argument, however, that I hadn't seen yet, which is the juxtaposition between US policy towards Central America in the 80s and what free trade represents for the region in this decade:

In the 1980's, we were worried Central America was going to go communist. Now we are worried it is going to go capitalist? We spent billions fighting communism there. Now we have a chance to help consolidate these fragile democracies by locking in a trading relationship with the U.S. that is critical for their development. Shame on us if we balk.

While simplistic, it is an interesting point of view that I agree with.