10 years ago a new kind of trade agreement was created: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) granted new rights to corporations in exchange for weakened labor and environmental protections. Since 1994 the track record is clear. In the United States, Mexico and Canada:

• More people live in poverty….
• More farmers have lost their lands….
• More workers have lost their jobs….
• More environmental laws have been overturned….

Yet the bottom line for big business has improved.

Based on this track record, the Bush administration is moving quickly and quietly to secure an expansion of NAFTA to Central America. The Central America Free Trade Agreement is another NAFTA disaster.

• Expands corporate rights to sue governments over environmental laws if they lessen profit, while denying individual citizens the right to effectively petition for environmental and labor rights concerns.
• Expands failed agricultural policies that feed biotech firms and agribusinesses at the expense of family farmers in the U.S. and Latin America.
• Expands the race to the bottom, for lower wages and lower environmental standards.

Cosponsored by: Campaign for Labor Rights, Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA), Nicaragua Network, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), U.S. / El Salvador Sister Cities, Nicaragua/U.S. Friendship Office, Witness for Peace, Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America, U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project (U.S. LEAP), The Share Foundation, Oxfam America, Resource Center of the Americas, International Labor Rights Fund.