The Guardian published AP's report on CAFTA beginning in Guatemala. The agreement has now taken effect. In Guatemala it's renewed the press's focus on the challenges awaiting the country.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, couldn't help a little insincere praise of Guatemala for its "sincere and diligent'' effort to adopt the necessary laws and regulations to put CAFTA into effect.

Just a little idea from the Chomsky school of thought: why is the US considering spending billions of dollars on securing its borders? Poverty is pointed to as a major driver of emigration to the US. But if free trade agreements (NAFTA and CAFTA) bring about significant economic growth as the US administration claims, shouldn't they be planning for less spending on border controls than more?

The reason is of course that even the US administration believes that free trade makes other countries populations significantly worse off.

This is a depressing subject, so we need a little humour. Check out this piece from the Rick Mercer Report on Canada's view of NAFTA and free trade- heck- at least we can't say we weren't warned.