From Bus Week, The Doubtful Deals Driving Cafta, a ton of inefficiencies so that we can sign a free trade pact to improve inefficiencies (same old story, see NAFTA, etc.):
Take an elaborate bargain offered by the Administration to win the votes of Senators Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Senate Agricultural Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). Because CAFTA would relax the import quota on sugar [good!], it's unpopular with America's sugar beet and cane farmers [good!]. So Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns offered up a smorgasbord of sweeteners: The government would either buy up the offending sugar coming from Central America and turn it into ethanol [bad], pay sugar cane farmers in CAFTA countries not to ship their product to America [bad], or ship surplus U.S. crops to Central America free of charge if producers there would refrain from exporting additional sugar to the U.S. [bad].
The good news is:
Trouble is, the Administration may not be able to keep those promises. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, it's unlikely the Administration has the authority for those gambits.
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