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Tratado de
Libre Comercio de América del Norte
15 Years
of Damage is Enough: NAFTA Must Be Renegotiated
(Montreal, Ottawa,
Washington and Mexico City / December 30, 2008) – January
1, 2009 marks the 15th anniversary of the implementation of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which integrates the
economies of Canada and Mexico with that of the United States. For
civil society networks in the three North American signatory countries,
this anniversary is no cause for celebration.
In a Joint Declaration
entitled “NAFTA must be renegotiated” (available at
www.commonfrontiers.ca), the networks propose that NAFTA re-negotiation
should centre on 10 crucial areas: agriculture, energy, foreign
investment, financial services, the role of the state and public
services, employment and labour rights, migration, environment,
intellectual property rights, and the dispute settlement mechanism.
We concur with
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s statement that “NAFTA
and its potential were oversold to the American people”. We
would add that NAFTA was oversold to Canadians and Mexicans. We
believe that NAFTA is a flawed deal that governments imposed under
pressure from large corporations, and that re-negotiation should
ensure that any future agreement benefits workers in the three countries.
In calling for
a re-negotiation of NAFTA, our organizations are opting for a new
trade model in which our governments govern for the people instead
of having large corporations call the shots. NAFTA’s most
damaging elements must be eliminated - in particular the investor-state
provisions found in Chapter 11, and the Chapter 6 proportionality
clause that currently forces Canada to send two-thirds of its oil
to the United States.
The
all-powerful corporations
Under NAFTA,
only the CEOs of large companies have privileged access to key government
officials, while all other sectors of society, including elected
members of Parliament and Congress, are excluded.
This trend became
especially obvious in March 2005 when the three countries launched
the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP, or
what quickly became known as NAFTA-Plus). One year later the North-American
Competitiveness Council (NACC), made up exclusively of CEOs from
North America’s largest companies, was created. At that time,
government ministers responsible for the SPP said to CEOs : “Tell
us what we need to do and we’ll make it happen.”
Key to any NAFTA
re-negotiation will be ensuring that every sector of society can
contribute to the debate about North America’s future and
that they will be listened to by our governments.
A charter
that protects investors’ rights – NAFTA Chapter 11
For the first
time ever, under NAFTA, foreign investors got the right to challenge
policies or legislation of national governments by claiming that
these policies would affect their ability to make profit.
NAFTA’s
Chapter 11 Investor/State provisions can be triggered in a number
of ways. Foreign investors can claim they were not given equal treatment.
They can challenge government measures to require the use of local
goods or measures that protect a population’s health or the
environment. And the private company can sue the government for
damages. Such cases have resulted in “chilling” governments'
efforts for the public good or for national or regional development
strategies.
Canada,
an energy colony of the United States
Another aspect
of NAFTA that needs to be re-examined, particularly in this period
of unstable oil prices, is the “proportionality” clause
found in NAFTA’s Chapter 6. This clause prevents the Canadian
people from exerting their sovereignty over their own energy resources
by guaranteeing the United States a greater proportion of Canada’s
oil production than Canada gets itself. After seeing this clause
during the original NAFTA negotiations, Mexico demanded - and was
given - an exemption. Far from being an “energy superpower,”
as Prime Minister Stephen Harper claims, Canada is actually an energy
colony, putting the voracious appetite of the U.S. for non-renewable
hydrocarbons ahead of Canada’s own needs.
The
economic crisis requires that a new development model be put in
place
Deregulation,
an objective once revered by NAFTA proponents, has proven to be
an abject failure. In fact, it is one of the principal causes of
the current economic crisis, as admitted by none other than the
former president of the Federal Reserve of the United States, Alan
Greenspan. We need now to restore the role of the state as protector
of the common good, a role that has been greatly undermined in the
last two decades.
A new trade
model between the three North American countries must promote economic
relations based on human rights, social justice and national sovereignty,
while focusing on sustainable development. We demand that the executive
branches of our respective governments listen to their people and
to the duly elected representatives in their legislatures. This
is the only way to ensure that another world is possible - a world
where peoples’ rights take precedence over corporate profits.
This press release
is a joint initiative of four multi-sectoral networks in North America,
namely the Québec Network on Continental Integration (RQIC),
Common Frontiers-Canada, the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade
(RMALC), the Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART-US) – and
the Polaris Institute.
For more information please contact:
*Québec Network on Continental Integration (RQIC): Pierre-Yves
Serinet, 514-276-1075, rqic@ciso.qc.ca
*Common Frontiers-Canada: Rick Arnold, 905-352-2430, comfront@web.ca
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