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The U.S. Central American Free Trade Agreement Essay

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The U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

The U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement(CAFTA) is a trade agreement that is being negotiated between the United States and five
Central American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, and Nicaragua. "The United States is committed to opening markets around the world because American farmers, workers, consumers and businesses want to sell our world class goods and services. CAFTA will simplify trade; promote investment; slash tariffs on goods; remove barriers to trade in services; provide advanced intellectual property protections; promote regulatory transparency; strengthen labor and environmental conditions; and, provide an effective system
to …show more content…

Potential benefits that CAFTA offers, as World Bank research suggests, include the transfer of technology from the U.S., wider access to the
U.S. market, and an increase in direct investment in Central American countries.[iv] Other opportunities for the Central American region includes investing more in education, increasing the skills of the work force, improving businesses to fight corruption and increasing the area's infrastructure. Each of the aforementioned factors can help
Central America boosting economic growth, creating jobs and reducing poverty. Although the agreement sounds promising for both of the Americas, a portion of citizens from the U.S. and Central America believe that
CAFTA is unfair. Central America is deficient in any sort of economic payoff even after a decade of improvements, together with a considerable lowering of trade barriers. Latinbarometer regional surveys of Central America report deterioration in support for recent political and economic reforms that trend in the negative direction:[v]

* 58% of Central Americans are unsatisfied with the performance of their market economies.

* 68% say that privatization has been a bad idea.

* 80% believe that corruption has increased.

* 50% say that democracy does not function in the region.

* 85% have little or no confidence in their political parties.

These statistics demonstrate that Central America does not have stable economic and social impact in their

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