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When I think about the Caribbean Basin Trade Initiative (CBI), I recall seeing dead American marines dragged naked through the streets of Haiti after a flawed military raid on warlords.

The CBI gives Haiti and other countries in the Caribbean basin (Honduras, Guatemala, Jamaica, etc.) the same free trade status currently enjoyed by Mexico and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Currently this agreement does not cover socks, which means socks imported from these countries must have a 17 percent tariff added to their price.

A bill introduced by Congresswoman Sue Myrick from North Carolina, HR 1589, would eliminate this exemption for socks and could potentially cost many jobs in Fort Payne.

HR 1589 has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. The House reconvenes today and the committee could pass this bill on to the full House for a vote.

Congressman Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, must work to see the bill is buried in committee. Republicans normally push free trade, so there is a good chance of passage if it gets to a vote in the House and Senate.

The imports from Mexico are largely produced by North Carolina-based corporations.

They want to shift operations to the Caribbean where benefits such as medical insurance, paid holidays and 401K are not offered to workers. There is also no workman's compensation insurance, waste water disposal, OSHA regulations or unemployment compensation to fool with.

Ronald Reagan pushed CBI, which was a bribe to induce Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean to accredit the armed confrontation in Grenada. It also provided a cover for $75 million in additional combat funding for the war in El Salvador.

CBI was contrived with support from multinationals like Chase Manhattan Bank, Alcoa and Inter-Continental Hotels. It threw in foreign aid of $350 million for Reagan-designated islands.

Our local hosiery owners, are under intense pressure to keep their prices low while keeping wages up. Thus far, they've been able to compete, but the writing is on the wall.

Here's a TV image I don't want to see: A billboard going up in a Haitian city with the words "Sock Capital of the World."

I have several problems with this.

1. I have requested the author to provide sources for some of the wild claims he puts forth in this article. He has chosen to ignore my very civil requests for those sources.

2. This article was written for the sole purpose of inflaming the passions of many sock mill workers that live in the Fort Payne area who would be adversely affected by this legislations, with the selfish aim of this author to enhance his own image and boost readership. I truly do not think he cares one way or the other about the sock mill workers or how this legislation will affect them.

3. The author has absolutely no knowledge of foreign affairs, attempting to portray Reagan as a purveyor of bribes to certain Caribbean countries for their cooperation in the Grenada invasion, and accuses Reagan of using such "bribe" to covertly provide $75 million in additional combat funding for the war in San Salvador.

The article is rife with inaccuracies and inflammatory rhetoric. Take a close look at the first paragraph.

I've posted this so that Freepers can see for themselves that the liberal, biased press is not limited to the big city rags such as the NY Times and others.

I did not post this as an invitation for debate on the HR 1589 or the CBI. For the record, I do not particularly agree with the CBI or HR 1589, which seeks to amend the CBI, or for NAFTA, as far as that goes and I certainly do not want to see any sock mill employees lose jobs as a result of it. It just irritates me to no end to see this kind of sleaze tactics and crap journalism used for the purpose of readership enhancement. And it's not the first time this rag has done so.

The author knows he has an unquestioning audience since the single largest employer in this area is the sock mills.

Your comments and observations, please.

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