The six CAFTA countries--Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic--are unlikely to immediately begin competing with China in terms of their ability to import textiles into the US at the same rate. The immediate economic benefit of CAFTA is unlikely to be felt by the US. However, it will place these countries on better footing to compete in a global economy, and thereby help CAFTA countries dig themselves out of poverty.

China is not the only totalitarian regime in the world. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is dabbling with populist authoritarianism (however that works), and China has promised to dump billions of dollars into Venezuela and Argentina in exchange for friendlier trade relations. (Think: China needs oil, Venezuela has lots of it.) In Panama, where I spent a good deal of my life, Panama Law #5 created lease agreements with the discretely named "Hutchison Port Holdings" whereby China controls the Panama Canal's ports at Balboa and Cristobal--major ports at either ends of the Canal. As Latin-American countries fall deeper into poverty, the appeal of Sino-Latin relations is likely to grow even stronger, along with the appeal of authoritarian rule.

The greatest reason for supporting CAFTA is that it would send a clear signal to Latin-American news media, US news media, Chinese news media, and the rest of the world, that the US would rather cut tariffs with countries in this hemisphere than allow jobs and textile profit to concentrate in China. (China, by the way, is still oppresive and communist.) The six, small, countries that have signed on to CAFTA will be watching very closely as America responds, and these countries represent the small number of countries that remain seriously committed to the principles of democracy.