The extraordinarily close vote is a major legislative victory for the Bush Administration, and for the trade agenda as a whole. As we have been indicating in our prior ALERTS, defeat of the CAFTA-DR might well have meant a cessation of future trade agreements, including the other bilateral free trade agreements in the negotiations pipeline such as the Thailand and Andean FTAs, and the multilateral talks such as the Doha Round of WTO negotiations and the continuing negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.

Last night’s vote – which closely mirrors the razor-thin margin by which “trade promotion authority” was granted in 2002 (215-214) – demonstrates anew that trade remains an extremely contentious issue in this country. Continuing vigilance by those parties, such as AFI, with a vested interest in seeing the advancement of open trade policies is a necessary predicate for moving forward.

AFI made an important step by being public and vocal in its support of the CAFTA-DR. As such, AFI can rightly claim some of the credit for this successfully outcome. The Association’s active support is recognized by important players in this Administration, including officials in the USTR and USDA. That, in and of itself, is a significant development.

Actual implementation of the CAFTA-DR remains contingent on final approval by the five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic. Several of these countries have already taken this necessary step. Assuming that the remaining countries follow suit in short order, it is expected that the CAFTA-DR will go into effect as of January 1, 2006.

We will, of course, continue to track developments closely and keep the Association advised.