Reply #60: All the *FTA's center around US/western economic interests,

[rman]

at the expense the rest of the world.

In fact all of corporate globalization, privitization and deregulation does.

Of course they can't just say that, so they are being deceptive about it.
You will however find it in policy papers now available under the Freedom Of Information Act - but those are very hard to get to even for scolars ("One can learn a lot from the historic record, and one can learn a lot from the fact that certain people don't want you to look at it" - Noam Chomsky, debating Richard Perle). Chomsky makes a clear distinction between "official policy" and "widely proclaimed policy".

Though sometimes something of it shimmers through, as in this statement by Tenet regarding Venezuela: "I think i can say (pauses and looks over shoulder)... i think the state department can say that Venezuela does not have the interests of the United States at heart".


(Sorry for preaching to the choir, just pointing out that this is much broader and much older then CAFTA and NAFTA.)