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Poll: Most Americans give thumbs-down to CAFTA trade pact

Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
March 02, 2005
By Doreen Hemlock
Business Writer

Adding fuel to the debate before a congressional vote, a poll released Tuesday showed a majority of Americans oppose the proposed U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement known as CAFTA. Only 32 percent support the agreement.

The main concern among 800 respondents polled by phone in early February: potential job losses and economic damage in the United States.

An anti-CAFTA group, Americans For Fair Trade, commissioned the survey from Republican pollsters Ayres, McHenry & Associates Inc. and nonpartisan research group Ipsos-Public Affairs, both of the Washington, D.C. area.

The anti-CAFTA group plans to circulate the results in Congress, hoping it will sway members to vote against the agreement.

The poll comes as the Bush administration prepares to send CAFTA to Congress, hoping for a vote by summer. The administration supports the agreement as a way to expand U.S. sales to five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic and also lock in U.S. trade benefits to those nations, bolstering their democracies.

But the survey found opposition to CAFTA among Democrats, Republicans and independents of all ethnicities, plus opposition among a plurality of U.S. Hispanics.

A tally of responses to different questions showed Democrats opposing CAFTA 53-31 percent; Republicans 47-37 percent; independents 53-32 percent; and Hispanics 47-40 percent, the survey found.

A whopping 74 percent of respondents said they'd oppose the agreement if it reduced consumer prices but caused job losses.

Other key findings:

69 percent of voters surveyed cited concerns of insufficient labor and environmental protections in CAFTA.

56 percent of voters voiced concern that CAFTA could erode U.S. sovereignty, by allowing foreign companies to sue the United States outside the U.S. court system.


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