Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement

Yeah.

It was CAFTA, it was CPTT, it was, it was AGOA.

Like, there was, there was a larger, broader term.

Right now, tariffs are becoming razor thin and laser focused to get a couple of very specific things done, and you're all dealing in a tactical world.

So I ended up working at Greenberg Traurig for this great group of old trial lawyers from North Carolina who had joined the firm some years before, but they were plaintiffs' lawyers.

So the first case I ever did, uh, was the first international arbitration, uh, under CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, against Guatemala.

Wow.

And we were plaintiffs, uh, and we won that case.

Uh, something that doesn't require a formal investigation, but Trump could argue regardless, uh, given the trade deficits the country does face, with US buying more imports than it exports.

Now importantly, while the tariffs are being described as a baseline tariff here, the White House did include a number of exemptions to this new levy, uh, with this including certain critical minerals and metals, energy and energy products, natural resources and fertilizers that cannot be produced efficiently in the US, certain agricultural products, pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients, certain electronics, passenger and other vehicles, certain aerospace products, information materials, donations and accompany baggage, anything already subject to the sectoral Section 232 tariffs we mentioned earlier, and finally, any duty-free goods under the USMCA agreement with Canada and Mexico, or textiles and apparel under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.

So you can see that there are some meaningful carve-outs here.

Now for Canada specifically, the change in tariffs we have seen is a bit less important, even though the country is seeing its general tariff rate fall from 35% to 10%.

Landau said, quote, Murillo and Ortega have constantly closed the door to productive dialogue, close quote, and that the rejection, quote, demonstrates their lack of diplomacy.

A similar scene played out in late 2022 when Nicaragua pulled support for Hugo Rodriguez, Joe Biden's proposed ambassador to the country, amid tough talk over CAFTA sanctions.

Trump's pick for Guatemala was sent to the Senate months ago, but the administration is back to the drawing board.

In late June, Cuban-American lawyer Juan Rodriguez, whose past clients included Guatemalan business elites, withdrew his nomination citing personal reasons.

You may have heard of the NAFTA superhighway.

This was the Central American Free Trade Agreement equivalent of that.

But we had to find that out on our own.

I made that discovery about 1:00 AM sitting at my computer when I found a document on what they call the Maricopa Association of Governments, and they were openly proclaiming this, and the map ran right through our area.

and Canada.

Even before NAFTA, you know, the CAFTA going back even to the late 80s, we've had a free trade agreement with Canada.

Industries have grown up with the expectation that that commerce would flow freely.

There have always been frictions.

I was into, like, you know, I had a furniture manufacturing, component manufacturing business, and I had a metalworking business in my 20s.

It got to the point where NAFTA and CAFTA and import sort of killed the furniture industry and a lot of the supporting industries that went with it.

Ergo, most of my customers died.

slow painful deaths like many other regions in the country so after that i pivoted to culinary school after working in fine dining for a while decided that wasn't for me and then came back and did some food trucks this and that and then i was listening to bernie sanders back in 2015 And he was the second time that I guess I got inspired by politics.

And we're going to give you the best thing you could have.

NAFTA, CAFTA, and other things that will take away your job.

Oh, I didn't say that just now.

Okay.

This is not every boomer, but my tirade is with some boomers that were handed the greatest economy, high unionization, low illegal immigration, low corruption in government, and sold off the whole kit and caboodle.

sat here and sold it off through NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, allowed the illegals in during Reagan, allowed illegals in during Clinton.

My tirade is against boomers that think that you should still sit here and make $20, $30 an hour the same rate that was going in the 80s.

That's my tirade, because I'm a Gen X, and the job I do is remodel homes, and I'm making the going rate that people used to make almost 30, 40 years ago.