‘Manufacturers of Misery’ Oppose Free Trade: By rejecting Washington’s plan for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, according to this editorial from Spain’s El Diario Exterior, ‘the manufacturers of misery, who are stuck in slogans of the 1970s, have dynamited’ what was a chance to ‘replace poverty and under-development with trade and a market economy.’ (November 15, 2005, El Diario Exterior – Original Article (Spanish) (via Watching America)
Those manufacturers of misery who bandy about slogans from the 1970s have dynamited what had been a chance to pass from poverty and underdevelopment, to trade and a market economy.
Chilean and American companies continue to tale advantage of the commercial opening up and new opportunities that the FTA [Free Trade Agreement] brings the two countries. As was published in Diario Exterio, during the first year that the treaty was in force, bilateral trade grew 33%, and it has already risen an additional 38.8% up to September 30, 2005.
Chile’s gamble on the FTA has resulted in exports valued at $4.8 billion, in increase of 30.5% compared to 2003. Imports rose 3.4 billion, an increase of 32% over the previous year. Likewise, the dynamic trend in exports has propelled the sale of industrial products, with exports reaching $2.6 billion.
In 1991, 32.5% of products exported to the United States by Chile were industrial. Today this percentage has reached 57.2%. Thanks to the Free Trade Agreement, Chile has remarkably diversified production. During 2004, 2,135 companies exported 2,088 products to the U.S., which has contributed positively and directly to job creation.
The United States helped overthrow Allende and as a result Chile is a vibrant democratic ally with a per capita GDP over $10k.
We left Castro in power and as a result Cuba is a cesspool with a per capita GDP of $3k.
