FTAA Spells Bad News
For Jobs and Democracy

Why we need to defeat
The Free Trade Area of the Americas

For working people, the North American Free Trade Act was bad news. The news could get a lot worse.

The United States and other governments in the Americas are currently negotiating a trade deal to cover the entire Western Hemisphere (except Cuba). Scheduled to take effect in 2005, the Free Trade Area of the Americas would be like NAFTA - but even more of a threat to jobs, living standards and democracy.

What is FTAA? 

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would dramatically expand NAFTA:

Geographically: NAFTA links the economies of three nations; FTAA would encompass 34.

Corporate rights: FTAA would give corporations more rights under law, taking the strongest provisions of NAFTA, the World Trade Organization and the (unratified) Multilateral Agreement on Investment. In particular, corporations could sue governments for profits "lost" due to laws protecting workers, consumers or the environment.

Coverage: FTAA would cover not only manufacturing and investment, but also consumer and public services - everything from child care and transportation to insurance and drinking water.

Democracy: Even more than NAFTA, this new exercise in "free" trade would override democracy - attempts by communities to determine living standards, working conditions and the norms of doing business could be swept aside. "The goal of the FTAA is to impose the failed NAFTA model of increased privatization and deregulation hemisphere-wide," according to the organization, United for a Fair Economy.

Origins: Why FTAA? 

Impetus for an ever-expanding trade bloc based on the U.S. economy has come in large part from corporate fears here about the emergence of a powerful European single market. (See Timeline.) Hemispheric trade agreements on this side of the Atlantic are U.S. capital's response to this perceived competitive threat. First came the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement in 1989, followed by NAFTA in 1994.
Governments throughout the Americas agreed to the concept of a hemispheric trade deal at the first Summit of the Americas in 1994. The second Summit in 1998 established a trade negotiating committee and working groups on topics including agriculture, services, investment, dispute resolution, intellectual property rights, market access and government procurement. Negotiating groups met in 2000.
The negotiations have taken place in secret, off limits to the public and news media - but not to big business. More than 500 corporate representatives have security clearance and access to FTAA draft documents. In addition, corporate committees advise U.S. negotiators.
Two drafts of the FTAA are now public and available on the official web site.

Poison 

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) was another secret scheme designed to give capital the upper hand in the global economy. World-wide in scope, MAI was kept closely under wraps - few members of Congress had any idea of its existence. Citizens' groups got hold of a copy, however. Public Citizen (founded by Ralph Nader) posted the text on its website. Once exposed, MAI was doomed - its provisions were that outrageous.

Unfortunately for the peoples of the Americas, many of FTAA's provisions are likely to copy those of MAI. Like the global plan, the hemispheric trade agreement would force signatory nations to:

• Treat foreign corporations no less favorably than domestic corporations.
  
• Access granted to corporations from any one FTAA country must be granted to corporations from all FTAA countries.
  
• Remove performance requirements - rules established by local government to protect the local economy. For example, a living wage, using local suppliers or minority businesses, or reinvesting in the local economy.
  
• Allow corporations to sue governments directly for alleged restrictions on profit-taking.
  
• Submit to a dispute-resolution process involving international panels, not domestic courts.

And MAI's not the only model. The services agreement of the WTO (the General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS) seeks to open the service sector of each nation to transnational corporate penetration. According to trade specialist Maude Barlow, FTAA negotiators are combining the most extreme features of NAFTA and GATS.

Flush if they let us 

" Services is the fastest growing sector in international trade, and of all services, health, education and water are shaping up to be the most potentially lucrative of all," writes Barlow. The goal is the dismantling of public services. "The FTAA negotiating services agreement is even more sweeping than the GATS," she says. "It calls for `universal coverage of all service sectors' at every level of government and gives sweeping new powers to the service corporations of the hemisphere to move wherever they want and demand equal access to government funding now reserved for domestic public programs." That could remove basic services - everything from education to water supply from local control.

Draft documents indicate that FTAA will copy NAFTA's Chapter 11, which gives corporations the right to sue governments for the loss of profits - including the anticipated loss of profits.

"The real goal of GATS and the FTAA is to dramatically reduce or completely destroy the ability of governments anywhere to legislate or regulate on behalf of their citizens," says Barlow. FTAA would bar any government (local, state or national) from giving preference in services as varied as health care, child care, education, municipal services, libraries, culture and sewer and water services.

Any Doc will do

Among the possible effects of FTAA on services are removal of national licensing standards for medical, legal and other professions, allowing doctors licensed in one country to practice in any country, regardless of the level of training; and privatization of public schools, and postal services.

No government could enforce a requirement that the goods and services it purchases come from its own country.

FTAA negotiators seek to eliminate all tariffs and "non-tariff" barriers. Tariffs are border taxes on goods, largely eliminated al ready under NAFTA and WTO. Non-tariff barriers are the rules, policies and practices of governments that can impact on trade. "By choosing the stronger provisions of the WTO, FTAA negotiators have introduced tougher restrictions on the governments of the Americas and their right to regulate in the best interests of their citizens," says Barlow.
That could include food safety regulations, warns Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and author of several books on globalization. After examining WTO and NAFTA language, she concludes, "the drafters of the F'TAA are moving to totally remove the right of individual governments of the Americas to set standards in the crucial areas of health, food safety and the environment."

Stopping FTAA 

UE and Jobs with Justice staff protesting trade policy in Porto Alegre, Brazil

A trade deal may be negotiated in secret, but ultimately the fate of a scheme like FTAA lies in the public process of Congressional debate and voting and in the streets.

UE members are already fighting back. As reported in the May, 2001 UE NEWS, union members took part in protests April 21 in Chicago and Quebec, site of the third Summit of the Americas, and in meetings around UE District Two.

Education and mobilization can prevent this latest assault on jobs, the environment and democracy.

"We will stop GATS; we will defeat the FTAA; and we will begin the long journey of building democratic institutions to serve our rights at every level from the local to the global," says Maude Barlow.

The next step is the ministerial meeting that will be held in Miami from November 20-21.

As explained on the Stop FTAA website at www.stopftaa.org: Four years ago in February of 1999 in Seattle, a motley network of 80 activists first came together to plan for the civil society mobilization against the WTO. Similarly historic meetings are regularly taking place in Miami, throughout Florida and around the country to begin planning the civil society welcome for the FTAA with events scheduled for November 17th – 21st in downtown Miami.

Be a part of this mobilization against corporate-controlled globalization – and help Stop the FTAA!

There are already plans for: Teach-ins and seminars, reality tours, concerts and forums, rallies and marches, and many more ways to get our Fair Trade message out! Folks from Florida and around the country will be joined by activists from around the world linking the local issues to the global fights, while building solidarity and alternatives.

For more information, check out the many organizations who are fighting against the FTAA.
For a readable analysis of the impact of NAFTA, along with useful graphs and charts, see “Rethinking the NAFTA Record.” (This is a pdf document, so you need to download the Acrobat Reader to read it, if the Acrobat Reader isn't already on your computer.)