Bush administration primes Latino business for CAFTA support

Bush administration primes Latino business for CAFTA support    The Bush administration met with Latino business leaders Wednesday in Washington to raise support in the region for the creation of a U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement.
   The administration launched the formation of the Latino Coalition for Free Trade. In addition to CAFTA, the administration hopes to generate enough support from Latino business to push ahead with a Free Trade Area of the Americas.
   The United States is negotiating the CAFTA with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The Bush administration also intends to include the Dominican Republic in the free trade agreement.
   “We are close to completing an FTA with five Central American countries, and we are pushing for the hemispheric FTAA,” said U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick in a statement.
   Two-way trade between the five Central American countries and the United States reached $25 billion in 2002, according to the USTR. “U.S. goods exports to Central Americans are on track to reach $11.5 billion in 2003, better than a 42 percent increase since 1996,” the agency said.