What
is the FTAA?
fact
sheet
The FTAA, or Free Trade Area of the Americas, is an effort by corporations
and governments throughout the Western Hemisphere to create a giant trade
region, from Alaska to Chile, that would encourage corporate expansion and
"free trade." The details of the agreement have so far not been
revealed. Representatives will meet in Quebec City, Canada on April
17-22 to wine and dine and work out the proposal. It will be based
on the 3-way Canada-Mexico NAFTA model, and will be fully compliant
with the World Trade Organization. In other words, it will effectively
give corporations the privilege to make super-profits at the expense
of worker's rights and the environment. Below are some thing you
should know about the FTAA. Corporate Greed. The FTAA will create an $11
trillion dollar per year trade block.
Over
500 corporate representatives have security clearance to participate in
the FTAA discussions and have access to documents restricted to everyone
else. Based on public statements and previous discussions we can
assume several things about what corporations are pushing for. Businesses
see environmental regulations and worker's rights as
interfering with their "right" to make money. So, first of
all, they want "barriers" lowered, and, secondly, they want the
right to sue any government whose safety, health, or environmental
regulations cut into their profits. In addition they are eager to
"liberalize services," which means the opportunity to buy
and run government institutions for a profit. Such fundamental services as
education, health care, energy and utilities, prisons and the postal
service
could all be up for sale.
Worker's
Rights. No real labor standards are expected to be included in the
FTAA agreement. We can expect current trends in the hemisphere
to continue. Since NAFTA went into effect, over one million
more Mexicans work for less than the minimum wage of $3.40 per day, eight
million have fallen from the middle class into poverty. In the US it is
estimated that over one million workers have lost their jobs. Their
new jobs average about three-quarters of the pay of their previous job.
Throughout the hemisphere sweatshops and maquiladoras abound. Although
these have created employment, it is bare survival in the most
dangerous and degrading
of conditions, especially for women. And the most basic right
to organize is desperately lacking throughout the region, including in the
US. The effect of trade agreements on groups of workers is to create a competitive
"race to the bottom," where corporations seek lower and lower
wages and higher and higher profits.
Environment and Health. The increase of unregulated industry has led
to a marked decrease in health and environmental conditions. Along
the US-Mexico border hepatitis is two to three times the national
average due to lack of sewage treatment and safe drinking water.
NAFTA bylaws forced Canada to pay US-based Ethyl Corporation $13 million
dollars in damages because Canadian law banned the gasoline additive
MMT. The ban has been dropped and Canadian gas is now free to contain MMT,
a known toxin that
attacks the human nervous system.
Immigration
and Borders. People hoping to escape horrible working conditions
attempt to move to other countries. But trade agreements allow money and
employment to cross borders while at the same time restricting the
movement of workers. Increasingly militarized borders have forced people
to cross a more and more dangerous places resulting in hundreds of deaths.
When immigrants arrive they often get abused and exploited by
companies in their new place of residence. Restaurant workers in Los
Angeles can make less than $2.50 per hour, and worse cases, such as
the Thai garment workers discovered working in virtual slavery in El
Monte, California a few years ago, show the lengths to which employers
will go.
Land
and Indigenous communities. Indigenous communities have been
especially hard hit by global trade agreements. To implement NAFTA
Mexico repealed one of the articles of its constitution. Without
Article 27 rural growers have no guaranteed access to land. In
addition, a flood of cheap, heavily subsidized US corn going into
Mexico has wrecked the market for Mexican corn, and has driven whole
regions into even deeper poverty. Displaced indigenous people have been
exploited as cheap labor and face the threat of the loss of
their cultures. In San Quentin, Mexico, people who lost their land in the
South, now work on giant agricultural plantations, live in cardboard
shacks on company owned land, and buy supplies in a company owned store.
Often
they can't afford food, even though they supply food for millions of
people in the US. |
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