Re the March 14 article U.S. growers and producers fight CAFTA: Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Christopher Padilla says that most of the U.S. agricultural and manufacturing communities support the Central American Free Trade Agreement and that we will benefit from the pact.

Padilla is completely out of touch with the labor and agricultural communities in this country. Virtually every union and worker organization opposes CAFTA because it does nothing to remedy the fact that Central American countries do not meet international standards on freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively. These conditions set the stage for more outsourcing of American jobs.

Padilla speaks not for agriculture or labor but for big business. That CAFTA would undermine our country's workers, farmers and sugar industry is a testament to that. So when Padilla says ''we'' will get benefits from CAFTA, one is left to wonder to whom he refers.