(OTTAWA) The Council of Canadians today is calling on the federal government to re-open the NAFTA negotiations in order to close a gaping loophole in the deal that allows the exploitation, sale and export of our precious water resources. The Province of Ontario has given a Sault Ste. Marie company a five-year permit to export Lake Superior water to Asia. Since water is considered an unprotected commodity under the North American Free Trade Agreement, this permit may open the floodgates to water exports.

The National Treatment clause of NAFTA is comprehensive: tariff heading 22.01 includes water, ice and snow. Once it is included in a tariff item, the sector is covered by the rest of the agreement unless there is a specific provision that says it is not. Canadians concerned about this provision warned the government when it was negotiating NAFTA that Canadian water would be put at risk unless it was clearly protected and called for the specific exclusion of water from the National Treatment provisions of the deal. Both the Mulroney and Chretien governments refused. Under pressure from environmentalists to cover for this blunder, David Peterson's government did draft a provincial law to ban the export of water in its territory, but the Rae administration didn't proclaim it when it took office and the matter was dropped.

"Americans, Mexicans and, eventually, all of the other signatories to the FTAA will have the same rights to our waters as Canadians," said Mel Clark, former GATT negotiator. "Under NAFTA, we gave away our GATT right to use an export tax to protect all our natural resources, including water." Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council, adds, "Water is an unprotected commodity under NAFTA. Once the tap has been turned on, we will not be able to restrict exports in North America. Although American politicians are alarmed at this development, there will be no way to prevent American and Canadian businesses from teaming up to turn on the tap. Once the banks jump in, this will be a booming industry. Under the current NAFTA, that tap will never be turned off."

The Council of Canadians is calling on the Chretien government to re-open the NAFTA negotiations to clarify the right of all governments to prevent the exploitation of water resources and to declare illegal the recent permit given by the Ontario government for the export of Great Lakes water. Unless we act now, there will be no turning back. Future generations need us to act now.

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