THE DAMAGE DONE TO HUMAN SECURITY BY NAFTA SHOULD BE AT THE TOP OF THEIR AGENDA

Any discussion on deeper integration or ‘NAFTA-plus’ is premature

On March 23rd NAFTA’s ‘three amigos’ will be meeting at the Bush ranch in Texas. Paul Martin, George Bush and Vicente Fox will take this opportunity to have a private discussion about actively promoting a deeper integration agenda for North America.

Issues such as a North American energy pact, the harmonization of migration policies, and beefing up security under the guise of the war on terrorism will figure prominently at this heads of state meeting. These themes represent the slippery slope towards a ‘NAFTA plus’, representing a general melding of national policies with the aim of eliminating in each of the three countries what the large corporations refer to as those incompatibilities that limit ‘economic efficiency’.

However, some 11 years after the implementation of NAFTA, it is possible to measure the impact that this accord has had on the people in each of the three countries. These citizens have the right to expect that their political leadership will now prioritize tackling problems affecting social, cultural, environmental and economic rights that accompany economic integration. Before thinking about deepening the process of integration for the three North American countries, it is imperative that the experience under NAFTA be opened up to public debate.

PUTTING HUMAN SECURITY FIRST

If Martin, Bush and Fox plan to discuss security issues, they need to discuss human security issues first:

Bringing an end to poverty while simultaneously tackling the inequalities that currently exist among the three countries should be at the top of their agenda. Poverty is widespread in Canada and the US, while in Mexico more than half the population (some 53 million people) is condemned to live on less than US$ 3.80 a day. The divide between rich and poor is growing in Mexico and the United States, while only the presence of a more extensive social service net has somewhat slowed the widening chasm in Canada. In all three countries we are witnessing a growing feminization of poverty. On the eve of the United Nations Summit on poverty in September 2005, North Americans must unite to send a signal to the international community concerning the Millennium agenda to combat extreme poverty.

Protecting and improving the environment. Climate change is recognized by both experts and the public as a major threat to our future. However, the United States has refused to sign on to even the modest targets contained in the Kyoto accord. Canada and Mexico despite being signatories to Kyoto are not pushing rapidly ahead with implementation plans. The three governments cannot continue to ignore the need for a more determined effort to combat growing environmental problems.
Guaranteeing universal access to health services. In one country, access for all to health insurance and services is guaranteed and a priority matter for state resources and attention, while in the two neighbours millions remain without support. Given the potential and the urgent need to expand the five principles of universality, comprehensiveness, accessibility, portability and public administration to all in North America, the three leaders must commit to a continental strategy for health care.

Food sovereignty. In all three countries, NAFTA has undermined people’s food sovereignty by enshrining privileged treatment for predatory multinational agribusiness cartels over the rights of farmers and consumers. Under an avalanche of agricultural commodities – especially corn and bean – being dumped by agribusiness cartels from the North, Mexico’s agricultural economy is in the midst of its worst crisis ever with 1.5 million small peasant farmers being forced from the land since the passage of NAFTA. The increased vertical integration of North American markets under NAFTA has further consolidated market power into the hands of agribusiness, favouring centralized agricultural-industrial production over decentralized farmer-peasant production. This threatens rural economies and the safety of our food supply. The right of all rural and urban people to have their basic needs met is a key consideration that has to be taken up in Texas by the two Presidents and the Prime Minister so as to ensure a decent standard of life for all.

Ratifying and implementing international human rights as the foundation for democratic governance. Talks about hemispheric integration seem to assume that it is a matter for executive decision, whether among political leaders or the corporate sector. Legislatures are relatively marginalized, citizens even more so. As issues of integration and options for its shape affect all North Americans, why is participation so restricted, debate so limited?

The obvious foundation for further progress would be a commitment to democratic governance within the framework of international human rights guarantees (economic, social and cultural as well as civil and political), including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the San Salvador Protocol on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the core labour standards established through the International Labour Organization. With ratification and implementation of these fundamentals, debate might be encouraged about the appropriate democratic means of furthering participatory debate and shaping of the relations of all the peoples of North America.

NAFTA IS NO MODEL TO BUILD ON

If the ‘three amigos’ plan to expand on the failed NAFTA model before addressing the damage done by this accord, they are definitely on the wrong road. Despite over a decade of the destruction of good jobs and the reduction of environmental standards in all three countries, the US, Canadian and Mexican governments continue to try and lock more and more countries into NAFTA’s rules, whether through bilateral accords like the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) or plans to revive the moribund FTAA talks.

Martin, Bush and Fox need to listen to the growing tide of resistance gaining strength in the region, not only among the public but also in the hallways of government itself. The U.S. Congress has so far been unwilling to ratify DR-CAFTA, and many U.S. citizens are concerned about insufficient labour and environmental protections, as has been the case with NAFTA. In the Canadian Parliament, the Sub-committee on International Trade recently adopted a motion that calls for a thorough review of NAFTA chapters dealing with dispute resolution mechanisms and ‘investor-state’ clauses that have allowed corporations to challenge and even overturn important public health and environmental laws.

In Mexico, there is tremendous pressure to change the unfair U.S. immigration regime. Farm organizations with the support of other sectors as well as legislators are demanding that President Fox keep the written promise he made in the context of the National Accord on the Rural Sector to raise with Bush and Martin the need to revise or strike down the NAFTA chapter on agriculture, and in particular the section dealing with basic grains.

The ‘three amigos’ of North America should listen to the growing chorus of voices throughout the hemisphere who have said no to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Through their actions they have set back the FTAA process while simultaneously proposing integration alternatives within a vision that “Another Americas is possible”.

For the undersigned North American networks representing a broad diversity of social organizations, a public and thorough review of NAFTA is the sine qua non prior to any new integration initiative.

Common Frontiers-Canada
Quebec Network on Continental Integration
Mexican Action Network on Free Trade
Alliance for Responsible Trade-U.S.A.

March 22, 2005

For more information:

IN CANADA AND QUÉBEC:

Rick Arnold
Common Frontiers-Canada
Tel. (905) 352-2430

Pierre-Yves Serinet
Réseau Québécois sur l'Intégration continentale (RQIC)
Tel. (514) 383-2266 ext. 222

IN MÉXICO:

Alberto Arroyo Picard
Red Mexicana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC)
Tel. (52) (55) 5356-0599

IN THE UNITED STATES

Karen Hansen-Kuhn
Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART)
Tel. (202) 898-1566