What is the FTAA?
The April, 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City put the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) on the map for many Canadians. Governments are negotiating yet another free trade deal that could extend the trade and investment provisions of the existing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to all of the Americas - despite the demonstrated costs including widening economic disparities, the growth of sweatshop working conditions, and environmental degradation.
All over the Americas, citizens have mobilized demanding that their governments reject the FTAA. Since January 2003 some of those governments are beginning to listen and speak out.
What about Miami?
International Trade Ministers from 34 countries in the Americas are meeting on the 20 and 21 of November 2003 in Miami to negotiate the next to final phase of the proposed FTAA agreement. This is the last major FTAA Ministerial scheduled before the accord is supposed to be signed on Jan 1, 2005. Given the recent collapse of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) negotiations in Cancun, all eyes are on the fate of these Miami talks.
What is at issue in these FTAA talks?
Health care is put at risk & public policy trumped by private profit The draft FTAA being discussed in Miami incorporates the infamous investor-state rules of NAFTA's Chapter 11. Chapter 11 gave foreign companies new, far-reaching powers to challenge government regulations that lower profits - including regulations aimed at protecting public health. For example, attempts by provincial governments to broaden the range of publicly insured health care services, or to include services that are currently provided by the private sector (like pharmacare), would almost certainly permit private operators to sue for loss of profits.
Environment takes a back seat to corporate profits Using Chapter 11, corporations have successfully challenged Canadian restrictions on a toxic gasoline additive, Canadian restrictions on the export of PCBs, and a Mexican municipal ban on the construction of a waste disposal facility that threatened to contaminate local drinking water sources. Prying open services for privatization The draft FTAA includes rules that are based on NAFTA and the WTO's GATS (General agreement on the Trade in Services), which open up markets for foreign corporate services suppliers.
Recent developments in the FTAA negotiating process At the beginning of October 2003, the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) with representatives from every nation in the Americas (Cuba has been excluded from the FTAA) held a preparatory meeting in Trinidad and Tobago for the Miami Ministerial. At this meeting in Trinidad, the US refused to allow the subject of agricultural subsidies to be part of the negotiations in Miami, preferring instead to keep this contentious subject within WTO discussions (where the US in collaboration with Europe and Japan is trying to hold on to many subsidies to agribusiness). The US is pushing for every other issue - including investment and services to be on the negotiating table - the so-called "FTAA complete". This position is supported by a group of 13 nations including Canada.
The US position stands in contrast to the more pragmatic stance adopted by the Southern cone MERCOSUR nations and backed by the Caribbean CARICOM countries. They suggest taking the most contentious items like services and foreign investment off the table so as to be able to avoid overloading the agenda in Miami. They point out that a similar mistake contributed to the collapse of the recent WTO talks in Cancun. This negotiating position has variously been called "FTAA-possible" or "FTAA-lite".
By the last day the Trinidad talks reached an impasse and no mutually acceptable agenda was set for Miami. There is a meeting set for November 16-18 in Miami, just prior to the start of the FTAA Ministerial, at which a final attempt will be made to hammer out an agenda to keep the FTAA negotiations from de-railing.
As part of their new diplomacy (and having heard civil society concerns) Brazil is taking a leadership position in demanding that any FTAA agreement must support genuine development in the Americas, not just foster free trade. The Canadian government appears not to be listening to the new voices that have arisen from recent regime changes in various countries in our hemisphere, but is staying in lock step with the US seeing the FTAA as an opportunity to seek economic advantage over weaker economies.
What they say:
"The draft chapter on investment, as its stands now, includes a number of key elements, such as non-discrimination, transparency, and provisions on expropriation. Such obligations will not prevent governments from adopting legislation and regulating in the public interest."
What we say:
NAFTA article 1110, guarantees corporations compensation in case of direct expropriation (nationalization) or actions "tantamount to" or " "indirect expropriation". These actions "tantamount to" include government measures such as "any law, procedure, requirement or practice". (NAFTA art. 201) The FTAA draft proposes definitions of expropriation that are just as broad as in NAFTA thus allowing more foreign corporations to sue a government that adopts a legislation or rule that diminishes corporate profit margins.
This document was written for Common Frontiers. Common Frontiers is a multi-sectoral organization involving churches, unions, international development NGOs, and social movements in Canada. The Council of Canadians has been an active member of Common Frontiers for the past 3 years
