As readers of this blog probably know, the Central America Free Trade Area (CAFTA) passed the House of Representatives last night by one vote after much arm twisting by the Republican leadership. CAFTA will lower trade barriers between the signatory members.
Representatives Gene Taylor (D) and Bennie Thompson (D) voted against the bill and Roger Wicker (R) and Chip Pickering (R) voted in favor. When there's a trade bill that will hurt Mississippians, our two Republican congressmen can be expected to bite the bullet and put party above they people they are supposed to represent. It's tough job messing over one's state, but somebody has to do it.

They did not disappoint.

Like NAFTA, enacted in the mid-90s, CAFTA will further hasten the flight of textile mills and other manufacturing concerns from Mississippi and the rest of the U. S. Southeast to lower wage countries, but it will also harm farming in those countries by allowing U.S. agricultural goods, mostly wheat and corn, subsidized by the government, into the countries at a far lower price than the local farmers can grow it. This has been the pattern in many undeveloped countries. Farmers, lacking credit on reasonable terms and unable to sell their produce at a high enough price to survive, abandon their land and move into the urban areas, where they look for work and live in barrios. Many of them make their way to the U.S., where they work as illegal immigrants and send money back to their families. Our actions really do come back to haunt us.

Here is an article on the impact of CAFTA on farmers in Nicaragua, The War of Hunger: CAFTA Threatens to Eliminate Nicaragua's Small Farms by Sean Donahue in the Narcosphere blog. It's an excellent description of what happens in these underdeveloped countries when the trade gates are opened wide.