The United States completed a free trade agreement with five Central American nations plus the Dominican Republic by signing accords promoting environmental protection and sustained development.

But the nations involved in the deal, except for El Salvador, have yet to ratify the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Several opposition Democrats in the US Congress are against the seven-nation pact.

Officials praised the accords reached Friday.

"It is a compromise reached in favor of the environment," said the Dominican Republic's ambassador to the United States, Flavio Espinal.

In addition to El Salvador, the United States and the Dominican Republic, the pact includes Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras.

The CAFTA- Dominican Republic area is a larger US export market than Russia, India and Indonesia combined, according to the US Trade Representative's office. The United States exports more than 15 billion dollars in goods to the region every year.

i guess Perot was wrong in the Clinton/Bush debates about NAFTA being a terrible thing that will devistate the job market and destroy the economy.

WHO? ;-)

Yeah..NAFTA has been a roaring success.

Canadian lumber...oh nevermind...

i dont know what issues there are surrounding NAFTA but i would assume there are more benefits to offset the negatives or it would not still exist.

during the first Clinton campaign, Perot was arguing that the US would implode, the sun would dissapear and that girl scout would be turning tricks instead of selling cookies to survive. it was all something to think about. of course now, no one really thinks about it at all, so it must not be too bad.