Free Trade Rhetoric and Minimum Wages

As Congress debates CAFTA, I come back to a question I always ask as the various sides grandstand over the (generally meaningless) mantras of"free trade" and"protecting workers": Why not develop a minimum wage for each participating country based on standards of living in those countries? The cost of living in Nicaragua, say, will still be substantially less than in Atlanta, even if suddenly the poverty wages that workers often receive from American companies are out the window. If such an index was developed and enforced, we'd suddenly find out who really cares about workers' rights, who really believes in as free trade as is possible, and who is simply demagoguing the issue.

Of course I realize that the labor costs are only part of the dilemma. But if you can minimize the legitimate claims about worker explotation and make it clear that some of the critics simply care about maximizing corporate profits, protecting a narrow and interested segment of the American labor market, or protecting particular manufacturing or agricultural interests (textiles, sugar, eg.), you might be able to make better law that results in stronger, more workable international agreements.