On a 54-45 vote, the U.S. Senate Thursday night approved CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Opponents immediately moved to stop the measure in the House of Representatives.

The Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition announced it will rally CAFTA opponents outside the Minnesota office of Congressman Mark Kennedy, R-Minn., on Tuesday, July 12. The demonstration will start at 2 p.m. at 22 Wilson Ave. N.E., in St. Cloud.

"The fact that the administration has delayed the CAFTA over and over again is a testament to the incredible mobilizing that has taken place by activists against CAFTA," the coalition said. "But with enough Congress members being tight-lipped about their position, no one knows exactly what the outcome will be, and the fast-track time clock is ticking."

Under fast track rules, both houses of Congress must act within 90 days after the trade bill's introduction. The House is expected to take up the measure shortly after the Fourth of July recess.

One year ago the Bush administration signed the trade agreement with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic (which actually is in the Caribbean, not Central America). Ever since, the administration has lobbied Congress heavily to get the necessary votes for passage.

At the last minute, the administration made side agreements to the bill to address the concerns of lawmakers from sugar-producing states. They included having the U.S. government spend money to produce ethanol from sugar, increasing the amount of imported sugar the U.S. market could absorb. When the side agreements were announced earlier this week, Senator Norm Coleman, Republican from Minnesota, announced he would vote for CAFTA.

However, the U.S. sugar industry remains opposed to CAFTA and several other lawmakers from sugar-producing states continued their opposition.

In debate on the Senate floor Thursday night, Senator Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., cautioned his colleagues against putting much faith in the side agreements. The text of CAFTA remains the same, he said. "Side agreements mean nothing. Promises mean nothing."

Senator Mark Dayton, D-Minn., also chided CAFTA supporters for buying votes.

"The Bush administration is trying to make temporary side deals that run counter to the actual treaty in order to get the votes to pass it," Dayton said. Minnesota farmers and workers "aren't buying this boondoggle."

The sugar beet industry generates $2.6 billion in economic activity in North Dakota and Minnesota and supports nearly 32,000 good-paying jobs, according to a 1998 North Dakota State University study. Opponents say CAFTA, by allowing the import of cheap foreign sugar, would devastate an industry that is absolutely vital to the survival of the Red River Valley.

"It's our livelihoods that hang in the balance of the CAFTA vote . . ." the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association said in a statement that Dayton read into the Congressional record.

Labor, faith, environmental and human rights organizations oppose CAFTA because it fails to include provisions to protect the environment, worker rights or human rights and is likely to exacerbate the gap between rich and poor in Central America.

While Minnesota's senators split, with Coleman voting for CAFTA and Dayton voting against it, North Dakota's senators, Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad, both opposed the trade deal.

"One day the people of this country will say to Congress, 'You gotta wake up,'" Dorgan told his colleagues. "'You can't be passing trade agreements that pull the rug out from under this country.'"

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