FTAA Teach In

Join the U.S. Steelworkers, South American Activists, the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, and environmental and human rights activists in this interactive "FTAA Teach-In."

Friday, April 17th, 2001 7PM
Urey Underground Lecture Hall,
University of Montana
Missoula, MT

As you may be aware, there are current attempts by the U.S. government and multinational corporations to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada to encompass the entire Western Hemisphere. Their latest proposal, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), would affect the 755 million people that reside in this hemisphere.

Like NAFTA and World Trade Organization (WTO) policies, the FTAA is designed to eliminate trade barriers-like environmental and human rights laws-in order to ease the flow of capital across borders.

Labor, human rights, indigenous, religious and environmental activists throughout the hemisphere are organizing to prevent the FTAA from becoming a reality. Time is of the essence as trade negotiators will be holding closed-door meetings in Quebec City, Canada on April 20-22, 2001 to secretly further their plans for FTAA passage.

In order to help educate the community about the threats posed to the environment, workers rights, human rights and indigenous rights by the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the Native Forest Network is sponsoring a "FTAA Teach-In" on April 17, 2001 at the Urey Underground Lecture Hall on the University of Montana Campus at 7 pm.

Join U.S. Steelworkers, South American Activists, the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and Environmental and others as we explore the threats of increased globalization under the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

If you would like any further information about the "FTAA Teach-In," please feel free to contact:

Matthew Koehler
Native Forest Network
(406) 542-7343 or koehler@wildrockies.org

Background Information: What is FTAA?

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is the formal name given to an expansion of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) that would include all of the countries in the western hemisphere, with the exception of Cuba.

This massive NAFTA expansion is currently being negotiated in secret by trade ministers from a total of 34 nations in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. The goal of the FTAA is to impose the failed NAFTA model of increased privatization and deregulation hemisphere-wide.

Imposition of these rules would empower corporations to constrain governments from setting standards for public health and safety, to safeguard their workers, and to ensure corporations do not pollute the communities in which they operate. Effectively, these rules would handcuff governments' public interest policymaking and enhance corporate control at the expense of citizens throughout the Americas.

FTAA would deepen the negative effects of NAFTA we've seen in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. over the past seven years and expand NAFTA's damage to the other 31 countries involved. The FTAA would intensify NAFTA's "race to the bottom:" under FTAA, exploited workers in Mexico could be leveraged against even more desperate workers in Haiti, Guatemala or Brazil by companies seeking tariff-free access back into U.S. markets.

A quick look at NAFTA's legacy reveals disastrous consequences:

• An estimated 395,000 U.S. jobs have been lost since NAFTA as companies relocated to Mexico to take advantage of the weaker labor standards. These workers usually find jobs with less security and wages that are about 77% of what they originally had.
  
  
• The U.S. trade surplus with Mexico has become a deficit for the first time.
  
  
• Despite promises of increased economic development throughout Mexico, only the border region has seen intensified industrial activity. Yet even this small "gain" has not brought prosperity. Over one million more Mexicans work for less than the minimum wage of $3.40 per day today than before NAFTA, and during the NAFTA period, eight million Mexicans have fallen from the middle class into poverty.
  
  
• In addition, the increase of border industry has created worsening environmental and public health threats in the area. Every day, 44 tons of hazardous waste are disposed of improperly. In this time, birth defects have increased dramatically.
  
  
• Along the industrialized border of Mexico, the occurrence of some diseases, including hepatitis, is two or three times the national average, due to lack of sewage treatment and safe drinking water.
  
  
• Although it's hard to imagine that anyone would push for an dramatic expansion of a failed model like this, what little we do know about FTAA is that is likely to look quite a bit like NAFTA. In fact, some FTAA texts are reported to be literally based on NAFTA, with additional countries added in.