— Peter Mott
Should we start a campaign to end NAFTA?
Is it totally impracticable to try to join in a nationally organized campaign to dispose of NAFTA? Many say “yes” but:
1. All of us working in solidarity with the people of Latin America know that “free” trade is not at all free—-but centrally planned, not by some totalitarian country but by a powerful, global band of multinational corporations, neoliberal governments (with or without their people informed and agreeing), and their international financial institutions (again not at all democratically).
2. Most of us activists know—-and often proclaim—-that NAFTA has failed! It has created billionaires in all three countries but lead to the loss of thousands of good, manufacturing jobs in Canada and the US and created far worse poverty for 26 million Mexicans.
3. It is clear to many that the main cause of today’s immigration crisis in the US is NAFTA’s effects on subsidized US corn forcing millions of small farmers out of work in Mexico, and such retail giants as WalMart (700 of them in Mexico) forcing the closure of over a milliion small businesses there.
4. We know that NAFTA is undemocratic.
5. That it threatens national sovereignty.
6. That it serves as a dangerous model for new trade agreements, eg DR-CAFTA and now the US-Peru “Free” Trade Agreement, and also the sweatshop maquilladas from the Mexican-US border down into much of Central and South America.
FROM THE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY (CIP):
“It’s important to reject the erroneous and harmful free-trade model and demand a truly new trade policy for the nation. One thing we learned from the Peru vote is that accepting small modifications in the model allows the policy to proceed unquestioned….devastating to workers in developing countries and in the US. Only a coherent and principled stand against all NAFTA-style Free Trade Agreements and a demand to seriously evaluate and revamp international trade policy can bring about changes that promote development and labor rights for all.
FROM LORI WALLACH, PUBLIC CITIZEN’S GLOBAL TRADE WATCH:
There was little focus on the Peru NAFTA expansion deal in the Senate, but in the House an intense, multi-month debate resulted in a majority of House Democrats, including 12 of 18 House committee chairs, voting against the Peru pact and signaling that it is not an acceptable model for future trade agreements….”
Next step? We’ll ask the Alliance for Responsible Trade where their efforts stand. —-Peter Mott, Co-Editor, INTERCONNECT
— Peter Mott
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