The very influential Wall Street Journal came out in favor of the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement yesterday, and urged the US Congress to approve it. In two editorials published yesterday, the Journal defended the FTA as convenient for the USA and the entire region. The Journal also criticized the unions and the apparel and sugar industries for their opposition to the project. The editorial team of the WSJ pointed out that the approval of the free-trade agreement would allow “everyone to reconsider the economic global leadership of the United States.”
The Journal said that “a vote is scheduled for May and many members of the House of Representatives are hiding, thanks to the lobbying of the representatives of the textile and sugar industries.”
The Wall Street Journal calls the DR-CAFTA “an opportunity.” This lobbying is “a sign of the bizarre world that is Washington, D.C., since two industries that produce just a fraction of the GDP are doing battle in the capitol building.”
The paper points out that the unions have expressed their preoccupation for the labor and environmental aspects of the deal, “as if they want the US to oblige these countries (DR-CAFTA) to be regulated by US labor standards, as if the US had had these same standards when it was much poorer and as if Congress would tolerate such external pressures.”