|
Louisiana Citizens’ Groups Demand Fair, Not “Free” Trade
by dw
Tuesday, Jul. 15, 2003 at 7:03 AM
ianj@dangerousweapon.com imported from the old IMC postnuke site
The NO CAFTA Coalition's press release on how CAFTA
<br />
threatens Louisiana's fisheries, agriculture, environmental protections and vital public services and that the coalition "will host a series of events before and during the CAFTA negotiations to provide a forum for public discussion of the agreement, to describe alternatives to CAFTA...and to expose the secrecy and lack of democracy in the negotiating process."
NO CAFTA Coalition
=====================
For Immediate Release
July 10, 2003
Contact: Brian Marks
(985)868-4073
(985)381-6972 (cell)
bmarks1@lsu.edu
=====================
Louisiana Citizens’ Groups Demand Fair, Not “Free” Trade
State’s fisheries, agriculture, environmental protections and vital public services threatened
This Summer New Orleans will host negotiations for the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. The U.S. government is negotiating this treaty in the public’s name, but neither the public nor their elected representatives are invited. Despite the treaty’s backers saying it will advance democracy and transparency, CAFTA is a secret treaty. The negotiating text isn’t even available to the public or to the Congress, despite the goal of passing and implementing it by the beginning of next year.
CAFTA is an expansion of NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement, southward, and an expansion of the power of trade agreements to interfere in our lives. Under NAFTA, governments have been forced to overturn environmental and other regulations by NAFTA courts that have the power to overrule the Supreme Court or Congress. CAFTA contains similar provisions. It also threatens to force the privatization of vital public services, such as water, electricity, health care and education, over the objections of the public.
Agriculture and fisheries in Louisiana and Central America, already experiencing record low prices and widespread financial losses, will be harmed futher by CAFTA. Under NAFTA, Mexico was forced to remove protections for small corn farmers, which drove millions of peasants further into poverty. This has driven down wages across Mexico and pushed more Mexicans into the United States in search of work. The United States Trade Representative has said that no agricultural products, even sensitive ones like corn and beans, will be exempted from CAFTA. This will lead to huge job losses in Central American agriculture, and a shift toward growing crops for export, things like beef, shrimp, and sugar cane. These cheap imports will undermine Louisiana agriculture and fisheries and under CAFTA, it will be harder to control these imports, because anti-dumping and food safety regulations will be rolled back as well.
For these reasons, civil society groups in Central America and the United States oppose the CAFTA in its current form and call for trade that respects democracy, food security, and public services. A coalition of fair trade advocates in New Orleans will host a series of events before and during the CAFTA negotiations to provide a forum for public discussion of the agreement, to describe alternatives to CAFTA for Louisiana’s and Central America’s economic development, and to expose the secrecy and lack of democracy in the negotiating process.
================================================================
Contact the NO CAFTA Coalition’s spokesperson, Brian Marks at (985) 868-4073 or bmarks1@lsu.edu,
Or Media Coordinator, Ed Melendez, at (504) 949-2826 or ed@melendez.org for more information on the CAFTA agreement and specific events scheduled around the trade negotiations.
http://stopcafta.org/
LATEST COMMENTS ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
Listed below are the 10 latest comments of 2 posted about this article.
These comments are anonymously submitted by the website visitors.
| TITLE |
AUTHOR |
DATE |
| qkMCjuJG |
Harry |
Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012 at 12:32 PM |
|
|
|
