Legal Aspects of CAFTA
Cuestiones Legales del CAFTA

By Rachel Dickson
Interview with Carlos Sacalxot

CAFTA has just this year been ratified in both Guatemala and the U.S., and will come into effect in January of 2006. Therefore it is difficult to know exactly what the effects will be; many people foresee different outcomes. To acquire a legal perspective of the probable effects of CAFTA, I interviewed Licenciado Carlos Sacalxot, ex-president of the University of San Carlos of Quetzaltenango and current labor lawyer for Bufete Popular of San Carlos.

The legal ramifications for Guatemala from the Central American Free Trade Agreement range from affecting the rights and power of big businesses and workers alike, to altering public services and laws regarding intellectual property. Yet Sacalxot believes the government didn't adequately publicize the terms of CAFTA, thus preventing the majority of society from being able to analyze the possible effects themselves. CAFTA was published after it had been ratified, which didn't permit the people to have a say in the terms, and thus, the ramifications of CAFTA. The text of CAFTA is also still very difficult for the majority of the population to understand clearly, so many of the terms and effects of CAFTA are widely unknown.
Even so, there have been many protests against CAFTA before its ratification; it is clear that CAFTA is a controversial issue. Some of the protests have been very violent, and there has been at least one reported death of a CAFTA protester. President Oscar Berger refused to have a referendum about CAFTA, to give the people a chance to voice their concerns, which many people viewed as undemocratic. However, according to Sacalxot, the government of Guatemala didn't really have a choice in the matter. A referendum would do little good seeing that Guatemala doesn't have the economic or political capacity to oppose the ratification of a treaty with the U.S., let alone add its own conditions to the treaty, although the consequences for Guatemala are profuse.
Sacalxot believes that CAFTA will lessen Guatemala's ability to compete with the U.S., and result in Guatemala lacking technology, quality of products, and good prices.
CAFTA will also possibly provoke the closing of small businesses, causing more unemployment, and creating more informal vendors that operate below national standards.
In general, CAFTA will protect big business more than anything, because small countries that can't produce enough will need to enter the market with the big countries, where they have practically no competitiveness. Multinational companies have always had influence with the government, an example being the U.S. government's involvement in overthrow the revolutionary President Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954 to protect the interests of the United Fruit Company, and CAFTA is no exception. Under CAFTA, the member countries have the power to sue the Guatemala if the government tries to impose barriers that could restrict their profits.
To some extent, CAFTA will also provoke the privatization of services and resources of the Guatemala. In Congress, they are currently discussing a law of concessions that would make it difficult for Guatemalan society to be able to defend the interests of the country, such as education, health, and natural resources.
Although we haven't yet seen the effects of CAFTA and much is up in the air, Sacalxot believes that at the very least, Guatemala will have to import even more products, and the ramifications for the country will not be good.