[lbo-talk] CAFTA Trips

[Michael Pollak]

In Doug's most recently archived radio interview, Larry Hirns of the
Center for Hemispheric affairs says that even if CAFTA delivers the
"modest benefits" that the World Bank recently judged Mexico to have
derived from NAFTA -- and leaving aside whether it adequately judged even
the detriments it mentioned -- CAFTA will still be more than outweighed
merely by the reassertion of intellectual property rights that it
contains.  According to Hirn, the four countries considering the treaty
have some of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world, as well as being
among some the world's poorest countries.  And if CAFTA passes, it will
will force them to stop producing the generic drugs they are currently
producing -- thereby raising their annual treatment cost per patient from
the current $140/yr to $10,000/yr.

The rest of the interview is interesting as well.

Michael