Thousands Mobilize to Derail the Free Trade Area of the Americas
Thousands Mobilize to Derail the Free Trade Area of the Americas
NAFTA Style Hemispheric Trade Agreement Threatens Living Standards, according to Policy Think Tank
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2003
Contact: Nick Parker
(510) 654-4400, ext. 229
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(Oakland, CA)-After the collapse of the WTO trade talks in Cancun in September, the Bush Administration is once again promoting the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) at upcoming negotiations in Miami on November 20-21 that will be met by thousands of protestors from across the hemisphere.
The proposed FTAA seeks to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), creating an integrated economy extending from Alaska to Patagonia (except Cuba). It would give multinational corporations new legal rights which would take precedence over human rights and the environment, and would restrict the ability of governments to regulate in the public interest.
"Miami will be a massive showing of people who say 'no!' to the expansion of NAFTA across the hemisphere, a resounding failure with 10 years of evidence to prove it," said Anuradha Mittal, co-director of Food First. "The agreement will accelerate the race to the bottom, dismantling human rights, workers rights, and environmental protections. Once again we will be out on the streets to voice our opposition and show that a better world is possible."
Since NAFTA was implemented on January 1, 1994, the United States has lost about 700,000 jobs - generally union jobs with decent pay and benefits - in the manufacturing sector alone. In Mexico, NAFTA has resulted in a net loss of more than one million jobs, with more than half of the population unemployed, only employed part time or working in the informal sector.
"While NAFTA has been good for large trans-national corporations, it has been a disaster for working people in the United States, Canada and Mexico," said Christine Ahn, editor of Shafted: Free Trade and America's Working Poor, a book which pulls together individual and organizational testimonies from those most impacted by NAFTA.
"The FTAA is an assault on farmers and workers across the Western Hemisphere, by an administration driven by corporate interests that consistently hides from public oversight," said Peter Rosset, also co-director of Food First.
"The FTAA negotiations will take place while the South and the North remain sharply divided following the failed Cancun talks. Celso Amorim, Brazil's foreign minister and the architect of its FTAA policy, has stated the Southern countries are no longer willing to accept gunboat diplomacy from Washington. Given the presence of civil society on the streets and determination of developing countries, the U.S. should not believe that an FTAA is assured," said Mittal.
Food First staff Christine Ahn and Anuradha Mittal will be in Miami, providing daily updates and communiqués from the negotiations and the protests at http://www.foodfirst.org/ftaa/dailyreports.php.
To schedule an interview or for more information, please contact Nick Parker, media coordinator, at 510-654-4400, ext. 229. Or visit Food First online at www.foodfirst.org.
