August 6, 2005

MANAGUA, Nicaragua/GENEVA – Lutheran churches in Central America warn that a free trade agreement with the United States of America poses a threat to the region's most disenfranchised people, and are calling for broader consultation before any such deal goes into effect.

Prior to the US Senate's approval of the pact June 30, followed by the July 28 House of Representatives' endorsement by a narrow margin, the Nicaraguan Lutheran Church of Faith and Hope had voiced its opposition to the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The DR-CAFTA, the church argued, would only benefit large US businesses and the 10 percent of Nicaraguans who control 85 percent of the country's wealth, perpetuating "the system of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and dehumanization in which we live ... so that every day the number of poor people increases and the rich become richer."

The June statement by the Nicaraguan church is one of several issued in recent months by the region's Lutheran churches over the free trade agreement, previously referred to as CAFTA, as it originally included the USA and the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. When the Dominican Republic joined the negotiations in 2004, the pact adopted its current name, DR-CAFTA.

The Lutheran Costarican Church warned that DR-CAFTA would threaten the environment and jeopardize the livelihood of small farmers and other workers, eroding labor rights, creating unstable employment, and stripping away benefits such as social security, pensions and maternity protection that had been secured only after years of struggle.

Small-Scale Farmers and Businesses, Women Workers Especially Affected

Women, who make up a large percentage of the work force in small and medium-size businesses, will be especially affected, and the trade agreement will undermine the rights of Indigenous People, the Costa Rican church said.

Like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), DR-CAFTA would pose a particular threat to small farmers, who will be unable to compete with cheaper, subsidized agricultural products flooding into the region from the USA. The Nicaraguan church warned of the danger of this unfair competition and the threat of the privatization of natural resources, including water and bio-diversity, which would undermine food security and increase migration from rural areas to cities as farmers find it impossible to earn a livelihood.

Another area of concern for the region's churches is DR-CAFTA's impact on health, especially access to affordable medicines. By extending patent periods, the pact would raise the cost of critical medications, such as those for persons living with HIV/AIDS.

"When there is an ethical conflict between the pharmaceutical industry's trade rights and the people's right to health, our choice is very clear – we always choose life," the Lutheran churches of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua said in a joint statement issued May 13, during an HIV/AIDS regional consultation for Lutheran churches in Central America.

The DR-CAFTA was signed by negotiators from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and USA in May 2004, after just 16 months of negotiation. The parliaments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have ratified it, but ratification votes are still pending in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. For the free trade agreement to come into effect, it still must be approved by the parliaments of the other parties to the agreement. But it is not a treaty, therefore not legally binding.

Churches Urged to Study, Preach about Agreement's Implications

One criticism has been that little information about the pact was made public during the negotiations. In a statement issued in May, Costa Rica's Lutheran church called for open debate about the agreement "to incorporate a concept of greater solidarity that benefits the great majority of people ... and is conducive to an improvement in the lives of the poor."

It also urged churches to study and preach on the implications of the free trade agreement from a faith perspective of justice and peace. The Lutheran church stressed the need to accompany grassroots organizations as they mobilize in search of a more just form of human development. Such action should include collaboration with other churches in the region and calls for the solidarity of North American churches, "informing them of the consequences of the free trade agreement for both peoples through visits and campaigns," and seeking their assistance in lobbying the US Congress to reject the pact.

In its statement, the Costa Rican church said, "We express our total opposition to the policies that the agreement attempts to establish in Costa Rica and other countries, as they will have a negative impact on peace and national sovereignty."

Lutheran World Information
By Barbara J. Fraser, Lima (Peru)-based freelance journalist.