http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=37275

Carlos M. Pietri: NO! to CAFTA ... NAFTA must be eliminated not expanded


Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 17:43:50 -0400
From: Carlos M. Pietri cpietri@cantv.net
To: Editor@VHeadline.com
Subject: CAFTA

At the opening of the Organization of American states General Assembly, the president of the United States, George W. Bush (in some part of his speech), urged the US Congress to pass CAFTA because (he said) that, for the young democracies of Central America, it would bring new investment and that means good jobs and higher labor standards for their workers.

I must disagree with this statement: I believe that the CAFTA, as much as the dying FTAA, are good examples of the fundamentalism of the free market that has created a race towards the precipice ... having threatened the environment, the lives of families, human rights and democracy ... since Free Trade agreements work on putting commercial interests above all the human values.

Why is this?

Because: We all know that CAFTA is essentially the expansion of NAFTA ... and NAFTA has proven to be a nightmare for worker’s families and to the environment.

* A glance at the legacy of NAFTA demonstrates why these types of Free Trade agreement must be rejected.

Out of NAFTA, almost 400.000 jobs have been lost in the United States ... and the workers, on average, gain only 77% of the pay compared with previous to the treaty. In Mexico, from the beginning of NAFTA, around ten million Mexicans earn less than the minimum wage, and 8 million families had been displaced from middle to low-class.

The atmosphere suffers: In the areas around assembly plants, contamination increased and the chemical agent residuals have dramatically increased the rate of hepatitis and birth defects.

So, the NAFTA must be eliminated not expanded.

The Treaty will diminish worker’s rights and will cause great loss of jobs. Since the experience from NAFTA demonstrates how the basic rights of the workers and their families are eroded by Free Trade agreements that do not protect the workers. Corporations move from zones where the works must fulfill regulatory wage norms to countries where the wages are lower and union leaderships is broken with threats to transfer the production to others countries.

According to studies ... because of NAFTA, 90% of 400 plants have closed or are threatened with closure in the United States over a five year period. The race towards and over the precipice will be accelerated under the CAFTA since the corporations are pressing workers in Mexico with dismissals and even more against desperate workers in countries like Guatemala.

The Treaty will aggravate the destruction of the environment. Since the establishment of NAFTA, 15 American lumber product companies have established their operations in Mexico ... and the cut and transport of cellulose has increased dramatically. In the Mexican state of Guerrero, 40 % of the forests have been devastated in the last eight years ... and massive cutting has brought soil erosion, destroying the zone's habitat.

The Treaty will put lives at risk. CAFTA would expand NAFTA rules referring to monopolies patented in the entire hemisphere ... this means that companies with patents will have the exclusive right to freely commercialize their products in a participating country under the agreement. The rules on intellectual property are especially important for the pharmaceutical industry that uses regulations to prevent countries from producing generic medicines at low cost. So, if the laws on intellectual property were expanded, the production of medicines that could save thousands of people would be prohibited in Central America and, as a result, the crisis of AIDS and Tuberculosis epidemics would be worsened.

The Treaty will take essential services into privatization. The agreement is committed to privatize services such as education, health, electrical energy and drinking water. Such deregulations would specially damage the working-class. When Bolivia privatized the potable water provision, tariffs increased 200%, causing widespread protests with the result of many deaths and hundreds wounded.

The Treaty would spread the use of GMOs (genetically modified organisms). American commercial executives are trying to force other countries to accept genetic modifications. While environmental groups warn that these technologies have not yet been proven and experts on nutritional security say that GMOs (to the contrary) can increase hunger in poor nations as farmers traditionally keep their seed year after year ... but the multinational corporations have patented the genetically modified seed making them sterile for reuse. These farmers will now be forced to pay for new seeds, pushing them towards absolute dependency of them and their derivatives.

Free commerce is not working in most of the world.

From 1960 to today, inequality has worsened in our world, affecting poor countries in greater magnitude. If they were to sign the treaty, the countries of Central America would become more dependant on the great US corporations, inequality would increase and any hope of reaching sustainable development will drift away ... CAFTA will only increase poverty and the inequality.

So, please, a good solution is the creation of an alternative, popular origin shared in common with globalization, based on human scale development and just treatment, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable.

Carlos M. Pietri cpietri@cantv.net