Steve Pearlstein looked at the prospects for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) recently: CAFTA Could Fall to Big Sugar (Washington Post, May 11).
The treaty is in trouble in Congress. The main problem may be that it lacks a powerful, motivated, domestic constituency:
The problem for the Bush administration is that CAFTA doesn't offer enough benefits to exporting industries to get them juiced up about this fight. Even supporters of CAFTA estimate that it will boost exports by $3 billion a year, a rounding error in an economy that is running a $600 billion annual trade deficit...
But the opposition of the powerful sugar industry doesn't help:
... the sugar lobby, which for decades has lavished money on politicians of both parties to preserve prohibitive tariffs and restrictive import quotas that cost Americans at least $1 billion a year in subsidies and artificially high sugar prices. During the most recent political cycle, sugar interests contributed $22 million to federal candidates, exceeding the generosity of other, much larger farm interests.
How powerful is the sugar industry?
It should tell you everything that Bill Clinton interrupted one of his late-night assignations with Monica Lewinsky to take a call from Alfonso Fanjul Jr., Florida's top sugar baron...
What's at stake?
... a defeat for CAFTA will signal to the world that the United States can't walk the walk when it comes to curbing farm subsidies, thereby killing any prospect for the trade talks that really do matter -- those in Geneva aimed at a global trade treaty [the WTO Doha Round - Ben]. To avert that defeat, a desperate White House might try to pick off enough sugar-state votes by promising not to include sugar in any future deals. But either way, the effect will be the same: Hundreds of thousands of high-paying export jobs in growing service and technology sectors will be sacrificed to preserve the livelihood of 10,000 subsidy-addicted farmers and agri-millionaires.
Comments