SECTIONS

And the Threat to Social Programs, Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice in Canada and the Americas

January 18, 2001

Part 6 of 6
by Maude Barlow, January 18, 2001

For the PDF version click here.

Conclusion

If the terms and recommendations of the FTAA Negotiating Groups are the substantive basis for a hemisphere trade pact, the whole process is totally unacceptable and the citizens of the Americas must work to defeat it entirely. In spite of government protestations that they have negotiated these new trade and investment rules in full collaboration with their citizens, the proposed FTAA reflects none of the concerns voiced by civil society and contains all of the provisions considered most egregious by environmentalists, human rights and social justice groups, farmers, indigenous peoples, artists, workers and many others. Every single social program, environmental regulation and natural resource is at risk under the proposed FTAA. As it appears to stand now, there is no possible collaboration to make this trade pact acceptable.

That is not to say that the citizens of the Americas are opposed to rules governing the trade and economic links between our countries. In the wake of the failed MAI, Canadian civil society groups held a national inquiry called Confronting Globalization and Reclaiming Democracy, in which hundreds of groups participated. The results show clearly that, based on a different set of fundamental assumptions, such as the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights and strong environmental rules, Canadian citizens would be prepared to enter into a process to develop closer ties with other countries in the Americas and around the world. However, it cannot start with the assumptions and goals of this FTAA.

This process must begin by revisiting current international trade agreements like the WTO and NAFTA; it is time for a new international trading system based on the foundations of democracy, sustainability, diversity and development, and much good work is being done on these alternatives. As a beginning, Chapter 11 must be removed from NAFTA; water must be exempted; the energy provisions rewritten with an emphasis on conservation; and culture must be truly exempted.

Most important, the world of international trade can no longer be the exclusive domain of sheltered elites, trade bureaucrats and corporate power brokers. When they understand what is at stake in this hemispheric negotiation, the peoples of the Americas will mobilize to defeat it. That is the fate it deserves.

Maude Barlow is the Volunteer Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy group, and a Director with the International Forum on Globalization. She is the best-selling author or co-author of 12 books. Her new book, Global Showdown: How the New Activists are Fighting Global Corporate Rule, co-authored with Tony Clarke, will be published by Stoddart in February 2001.

---

SOURCES

Free Trade of the Americas, Canadian Government Release: Canada's Proposals for the FTAA Agreement, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, December 13, 2000, Ottawa.

The State of the FTAA Negotiations at the Turn of the Millennium, Paper prepared for the conference, "Trade and the Western Hemisphere," organized by Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, March 25, 2000, by Sherri M. Stephenson, Deputy Director for Trade, Organization of American States.

Report to the Trade Negotiations Committee, Restricted Document by the FTAA Negotiating Group on Services outlining its mandate, leaked in October 2000.

Services and Trade in the Western Hemisphere: Liberalization, Integration and Reform, Collection edited by Sherri. M. Stephenson, Brookings Institute, Washington, 2000.

Social Exclusion, Jobs, and Poverty in the Americas, Paper prepared for the Americas Civil Society Forum, November 1999, Toronto, by the Hemispheric Social Alliance and Common Frontiers-Canada.

Forgotten Promises and Forgotten Lessons: The OAS, the FTAA and Environmental Protection, Paper prepared for the International Centre for Democratic Development Workshop, Windsor, June 5, 2000, by Christine Elwell of the Sierra Club of Canada.

Navigating NAFTA, A Concise User's Guide to the North American Free Trade Agreement, Barry Appleton, Carswell, Toronto, 1994.

MAI, The Multilateral Agreement on Investment and the Threat to Canadian Sovereignty, Tony Clarke and Maude Barlow, Stoddart, Toronto, 1997.

Whose Trade Organization? Corporate Globalization and the Erosion of Democracy, Lori Wallach and Michelle Sforza, Public Citizen, Washington DC, 1999.

GATS: How the World Trade Organization's New "Services" Negotiations Threaten Democracy, Scott Sinclair, The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ottawa, Ontario, 2000.

The World Trade Organization, A Citizens' Guide, Steven Shrybman, The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ottawa, Ontario, and James Lorimer and Co. Ltd, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1999.

Invisible Government, the World Trade Organization: Global Government for the New Millennium? Debi Barker and Jerry Mander, International forum on Globalization, San Francisco, 2000.

Also, with research on services from Ellen Gould, Vancouver; on E-commerce from Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington; and on Latin America from Karen Hansen-Kuhn, of the Development Gap, Washington.

More in this section

Support our work and join/donate now!

Sign up for email updates,
e-newsletter, media, events:

HTML Text AOL

Search our site:

updated January 18, 2007