Over Sixty Civil Society Organizations Call for Greater Transparency and Public Participation in President Bush's Central American Free Trade Area Negotiations

Over sixty civil society organizations have called on President George Bush to extend the deadline for the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) negotiations to allow for meaningful public participation and transparency. The organizations argue that current negotiations exclude civil society representatives outside the business sector and that the failure to publish negotiating texts hinders democratic input. They specifically express concern that labor issues will be addressed in May 2003 without input from Central American labor unions, and highlight potential threats to agriculture, sustainable development, worker rights, and access to medicines.

• The signatories argue that CAFTA negotiations have lacked meaningful civil society involvement, noting that participation has been limited to the business sector and that planned public hearings by the U.S. Agency for International Development are insufficient.
• The organizations claim that transparency has been undermined by the failure to make negotiating texts available to the public, contrasting this with the partial publication of Free Trade Area of the Americas drafts in 2001 and 2002.
• The group requests an extension of the negotiation timeline to implement representative participation mechanisms for workers, women, and indigenous and ethnic groups, specifically warning against proceeding with labor issue language in May without input from Central American unions.
• The signatories express grave concern that the agreement may threaten substantive rights regarding sustainable development, agriculture, worker rights, public services, access to medicines, and the protection of traditional knowledge.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2003). Over Sixty Civil Society Organizations Call for Greater Transparency and Public Participation in President Bush's Central American Free Trade Area Negotiations. https://www.ciel.org/news/over-sixty-civil-society-organizations-call-for-greater-transparency-and-public-participation-in-president-bushs-central-american-free-trade-area-negotiations/

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Over Sixty Civil Society Organizations Call for Greater Transparency and Public Participation in President Bush's Central American Free Trade Area Negotiations. 2003. https://www.ciel.org/news/over-sixty-civil-society-organizations-call-for-greater-transparency-and-public-participation-in-president-bushs-central-american-free-trade-area-negotiations/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Over Sixty Civil Society Organizations Call for Greater Transparency and Public Participation in President Bush's Central American Free Trade Area Negotiations |date=1 April 2003 |url=https://www.ciel.org/news/over-sixty-civil-society-organizations-call-for-greater-transparency-and-public-participation-in-president-bushs-central-american-free-trade-area-negotiations/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2003over, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Over Sixty Civil Society Organizations Call for Greater Transparency and Public Participation in President Bush's Central American Free Trade Area Negotiations}}, publisher = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2003}, month = apr, url = {https://www.ciel.org/news/over-sixty-civil-society-organizations-call-for-greater-transparency-and-public-participation-in-president-bushs-central-american-free-trade-area-negotiations/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }