Neither free nor fair

Here’s a good example of how “free trade” agreements are often anything but:

For American drug companies, this agreement [i.e. CAFTA] extends the time period during which brand-name pharmaceuticals have exclusive access to markets, postponing the entry of generic drugs and thus limiting competition. For Central Americans, the cost of drugs will soar, straining budgets and gutting health care. The result may be a death sentence for many.

In agriculture, small farmers would be placed on a collision course with U.S. agro-business and their heavily subsidized farm exports. The United States exported paddy rice, for example, at a price almost 20 percent lower than the cost of production in 2003, making it impossible for Central Americans to compete.

Read more here.