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CounterPunch
September
12, 2002
Another Bad
Trade Pact
From NAFTA to CAFTA
by Krystal Kyer
Under cover of the corporate (and independent)
media's obsession with GW Bush's maniacal 'war on terror,' the
US is pursuing new trade negotiations to expand the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) debacle to Central and South America.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) aims at creating
a free-trade zone throughout the western hemisphere, with a
target date of January 2005. The effects of which could have
an even more dismal impact on millions of people throughout
North and South America then has the latest imperialist government's
war.
But a major stumbling block to the creation
of FTAA is the many social struggles, left political parties,
and strong unions in the Central American countries of Costa
Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. And if
FTAA comes to fruition, shipments of export/import goods will
have to travel through this region. Therefore, the Central
America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is a vital step to expanding
NAFTA. Without the endorsement of Central American business
leaders and government officials (backed by their respective
militaries), FTAA will be next to impossible. President Bush
announced last January that CAFTA is a top priority for his
administration, and Congressional approval of "fast track"
authority earlier this year could mean that it may be ready
as early as next summer. The White House's brief Fact
Sheet on CAFTA makes numerous claims regarding the perceived
benefits of expanding NAFTA via CAFTA. Several points are worth
disputing, based on the measurable results of NAFTA since its
passage in 1994, as well as government actions in Central America
today. These include the following statements:
Claim #1: American farmers, businesses,
workers and consumers will benefit from free trade.
Rebuttal:
Last year Public
Citizen released a 70-page review of NAFTA's agricultural
outcomes, which empirically refutes this claim. Since NAFTA,
American, Canadian and Mexican independent farmers have seen
prices plummet and safety nets removed. Thousands of small farms
have gone under since NAFTA. As a result, farmland has shifted
into the hands of agricultural mega-corporations such as Tyson
and Cargill. Small farmers are clearly losers under NAFTA. Correspondingly,
large businesses have been the greater beneficiaries of free
trade. Since NAFTA began, ConAgra's and Archer Daniels Midland's
profits have both tripled to $413 million and $301 million,
respectively. As for American workers, or any workers for that
matter, benefiting from free trade--we haven't found any. Promises
of more manufacturing jobs were never fulfilled. Instead, many
jobs were transferred to maquiladoras in northern Mexico, where
US corporations could pay workers less while evading US worker
safety standards and environmental protection laws. It is estimated
that nearly 15 million peasant farmers throughout Mexico have
lost significant income. American consumers have not felt the
lower prices, either. In reality, domestic food prices rose
20% during NAFTA's first seven years.
Claim #2: CAFTA would "support
Democracy and Economic Reform."
Rebuttal:
There is no doubt that the US trade policies support economic
reform outside of the US. But the fundamental question is: do
the people of these countries want the kind of economic reform
being offered by free trade proponents? It is a neoliberal economic
model that is pushed forth by US trade and foreign policy, which
is, by all accounts, antithetical to what social movements throughout
Central America are calling for. Dozens of movements and direct
actions throughout the region have been meet with resistance
from the government and military leaders, often backed by the
United States. If citizens do not want CAFTA, then how can implementing
CAFTA be a vessel for democracy?
Claim #3: "The United States
has supported the development of democracy, enhanced economic
growth, and security for human rights..."
Rebuttal:
US support for democratic governments in Central America cannot
be found in any historical record. In fact, the US has a tendency
(a policy?) to support military regimes and dictatorships in
that region, more than anything else. The US, through the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly known
as the US Army School of Americas),
has trained tens of thousands of Central and South American
military officers in the ancient art of violating basic human
rights. It has also worked covertly and overtly to install and
maintain governments that are undemocratic (to say the least)--El
Salvador's US-backed coup in 1979, Nicaragua's contra war during
both the Carter and Reagan administrations, and Guatemala's
1954 CIA-engineered coup, etc. . .(Read Noam Chomsky's book,
Turning the Tide: US Intervention in Central America and the
Struggle for Peace).
Claim #4: CAFTA would "commit
these countries to even greater openness and transparency, which
would deepen the roots of democracy, civil society, and the
rule of law in the region..."
Rebuttal:
The "openness and transparency" that the Whitehouse
if referring to here has nothing to do with democracy, civil
society or the rule of law. Rather, it applies to the movement
of goods and services, financial and material, across boarders
without penalties. It involves a further weakening of those
countries abilities to protect their comparatively weak economies
from large industrial countries. Privatization of public services
such as water and sanitation, electricity, and healthcare has
taken place throughout the region behind closed doors and against
the will of the populace. Proponents of CAFTA in Central American
countries are actually actively working against the interests
of civil society and democracy, through union-firings and arrests,
rollbacks of labor and environmental standards, and police violence
at anti-FTAA rallies. The people of El Salvador have been struggling
against FTAA and neoliberal economic policies for decades.
Here in the US, the Committee
In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) is
lending their support to the campaign against CAFTA and FTAA.
El Salvadoran labor and civil leaders have identified CAFTA
as the greatest threat to their current struggle for democracy
in El Salvador. In reality, CAFTA is destroying the roots of
democracy and civil society, while instituting military regimes
who determine, interpret, and carry out the 'law.'
Claim #5: Free trade, along with increases
in trade and investment flows would ". . . support common
efforts to achieve stronger environmental protection and improved
working conditions."
Rebuttal:
Free trade has achieved a route circumventing environmental
protections and worker's rights. US corporations often move
manufacturing to countries like Mexico, where labor unions,
worker's rights, and minimum wages are weaker than in the US.
In agriculture, deadly pesticides that have banned in the US
for environmental and worker safety, like the carcinogen DDT,
are used freely (and then imported back to US consumers). In
all likelihood, CAFTA would further weaken environmental protections
and worker's rights, just as NAFTA has done here and abroad.
Like it or not, there is more going on in the world besides
the latest 'war of terror.' CAFTA is an important issue that
should not be overlooked by social/economic/environmental justice
activists in the coming months. If it is passed, the expansion
of NAFTA will likely result in a reduction in workers rights,
higher unemployment and lower wages; higher prices for food;
environmental degradation; and an ever-widening wealth gap between
the world's rich few and poor billions. The devastating impacts
of corporate-style free trade makes one wonder whether Bush
Jr. is actually waging two wars right now. . .
Krystal Kyer
is an activist writer, and has a Master of Environmental Studies
degree. She can be reached at: klynn@nocharge.zzn.com
Copyright 2002 Krystal Kyer
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September
11, 2002
Anis Shivani
How to
Survive in Ashcroft's America
Pierre Tristam
Abusing
the Sorrows of 9/11
David Krieger
Resisting
Bush's
"Relentless War"
Jerre Skog
9/11 One
Year Later:
Remember the Others, Too
Dave Marsh
Illegal
Music?
A Sampler's Delight
Norm Dixon
How the
Warmongers Have Exploited 9/11
September
7 / 8, 2002
Bill Christison
A
Year Later: It's Happening Here
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Tenth Crusade
Susan Davis
Mr. Ashcroft's
Neighborhood
Bruce Jackson
When
War Came Home
David Krieger
Looking
Back on September 11
Mike Leon
Bush and War
Peter Linebaugh
Levellers
and 9/11
William McDougal
September 11 One Year On:
That's Entertainment!
Riad Z. Abdelkarim
and Jason Erb
How American Muslims Really Responded
to 9/11
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The Trouble
with Normal
Tom Stephens
Rise Up...Dump Bush
September
6, 2002
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Stolen
Trust
Gale Norton, Indians and the Case of the Missing $10 Billion
September
5, 2002
Ben Tripp
Jesus vs.
George the Second
William Hughes
McKinney's
Defeat:
Undue Meddling
Gavin Keeney
Beaux
Reves, Citoyens!
Wayne Saunders
War
Begins; Nobody Notices
Irit Katriel
Drunk
with Power:
Israeli Chief of Staff Calls Palestinians a "Cancerous Demographic
Threat"
Gary Leupp
Who's Afraid
of Iraq?
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