Sugar Sugar

Interesting article today by Pete du Pont on CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement). It seems to boils down to the Central American Nations of Costs Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic removing their remaining tariffs of US goods while the US which already has almost no tariffs on goods from these nations would drop the protections afforded to the US sugar industry.

It seems like a very fair deal to me.

Canada does not have the same protectionist tariffs on sugar that the US has and because of that sugar prices (according to a KPMG 2004 study) average 40% less in Canada than in the US. This seems to be a clear case of a special interest (the US sugar lobby) making profits at the expense of the rest of US society.

If your representative in Congress votes against CAFTA it would be a clear indication that they are more interested in campaign contributions from the sugar lobby than in making sure that the main ingredient in most of the items of the local school bake sale are purchased at a reasonable price.