This article examines the role of free-trade agreements that integrate profoundly asymmetrical economies in simultaneously benefiting the more powerful nation and exacerbating inequalities within and between the countries involved. The latest in a series of such agreements in the Americas, the Dominican Republic and Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) opens up the economies of these small nations to US investment and exports, as multinational companies are able take advantage of lower production costs and weak labour legislation.
