back to Organic Consumers Assn. Corporate page updated December 7, 2001 Stop The FTAA! Stop Fast Track! Background Fact sheets and materials Links Contact us December 7, 2001: The House of Representatives passed Fast Track yesterday by one vote (see the roll call.) The vote was largely party-line, with many Republicans being bought off by concessions for their districts, and others being intimidated into "supporting their President." If passed by the Senate, Fast Track would hurt, not help national security. (more to come) Thanks to the many OCA members and supporters who contacted their legislators. Many wavering Democrats and a few Republicans did vote NO. The Senate will take up the bill in 2002. Here's a one-page guide to Fast Track - same thing in RTF: Fast Facts on Fast Track. ALSO: Pro-GMO legislators have sneakily included language in HR 3005 (Section 2 b) (10) (viii) (II)) that would make GMO labeling ILLEGAL as well as eliminating the precautionary principle for GMO (genetically modified organism) regulation. (The Democratic "alternative" to HR 3005, though better in some aspects, has the EXACT SAME LANGUAGE regarding GMOs.) If either bill passes, then the US would be able to force European countries to accept unlabeled US GMO products, and the US movement to label GM foods would be stopped dead. Even if your legislator opposes Fast Track, tell them you want all GMOs labeled and to take that provision out of the Democratic bill. (If you want to look at the bill, go to the Library of Congress search service and look up HR 3005, then go to Section 2.) What is the FTAA and Fast Track? The Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA) is an international business deal, disguised as a proposed treaty. It would create the world's largest free trade zone--affecting 34 nations, 650 million people and $9 trillion in capital. Sometimes it is called "NAFTA for the hemisphere." Fast-Track is authority given to the President, by Congress, to accept or reject the deal without any input from Congress. Fast-Track authority removes Congress's ability to negotiate the deal. Advocates say that free trade is the solution to poverty and inequality, and increases prosperity for everyone. Seven years of NAFTA has shown what we can expect. Over 700,000 U.S. jobs have been certified as lost due to NAFTA. Threat of plant closure and relocation is used in over 50% of union disputes. Real wages have declined as productivity increased. Poor environmental and public health conditions along the U.S.-Mexico border. For the first time, the U.S. trade surplus with Mexico has become an $18 billion deficit. The FTAA is being negotiated in secret. Initiated in 1994 by the 34 countries of North and South America (excluding Cuba), governments have included the business sector in FTAA talks every step of the way, but have kept the text of the treaty secret from regular people and their elected representatives. 50 members of the US House of Representatives have written to the Bush administration demanding that the text be released. What's new in the FTAA? The FTAA covers the hemisphere. It will not have the 'side agreements' in NAFTA regarding labor and environment that allow the NAFTA participants more flexibility to support these rights. It has 'services' provisions that are not in NAFTA. These services provisions would require governments to give foreign corporations equal access to compete for government services if domestic businesses also provide those services. Examples: education (domestic businesses provide private schools and universities), libraries, postal services, health services, government monitoring and inspection, and many more. Under NAFTA's Chapter 11 Dispute Settlement Body, the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments have had to give foreign corporations hundreds of millions of dollars because local laws stopped the companies from implementing their full investment plans due to environmental regulations. If the FTAA is agreed to, Chapter 11 will devastate the environment across the hemisphere. It has already made legislators wary of passing environmental or labor laws that might be challenged and expose their governments to liability. Chapter 11 is a direct attack on democracy! What is the status of the FTAA? The participating nations are still writing the detailed text. They want it to be fully implemented by 2005. Many people believe that if Fast Track fails, the FTAA and future world trade pacts like the MAI will be stopped for at least several years because the participating nations will not be able to agree on the provisions. Therefore, it is critical that Congress vote NO on giving Bush fast-track authority. *********************************************************************** Resources StopFTAA (direct-action oriented, lots of resources and local groups) Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch (lots of background materials, including materials on NAFTA and other trade pacts. Here's where you can sign up to visit your member of Congress) ACERCA (has comprehensive FTAA Action Pack, advice on visiting Congress, Activist's Guide to Understanding the FTAA, Spanish materials). ALSO: Alliance for Responsible Trade - www.art-us.org Canadian Labour Congress - www.clc-ctc.ca/labour/index.html Center of Concern - www.coc.org/ftaa.htm The scorecard on globalization over the past 20 years: http://www.cepr.net/ Common Frontiers - www.web.net/comfront Council of Canadians (good international site) - www.canadians.org Foreign Policy in Focus - www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/briefs/vol1/ftaa.html Resource Center of the Americas - www.americas.org Sierra Club - www.sierraclub.org/trade/ Sierra Club Canada - www.sierraclub.ca/national/trade-env/ Smash FTAA - www.tao.ca/~kdawg/smashftaa PRO-FTAA Official FTAA website - www.ftaa-alca.org United States Trade Representative's Office - www.ustr.gov Fact sheets, handouts, and booklets 1. Our simple half-page (front/back) handout on the FTAA (in RTF). (revised October 2001) If you can only give out one piece, this is it! Same thing, smaller file, in Word 2000. 2. Ten Reasons to Oppose the FTAA. www.globalexchange.org/ftaa/topten.html 3. Four-page 11x17 handout on the FTAA for union and other use. Contact Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, 617-524-8778 or bostonjwj@mindspring.com Detailed background materials (selected) 1. "The Threat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas," authoritative analysis by Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians and International Forum on Globalization. Download from www.canadians.org 2. "The Last Frontier," Maude Barlow's clear and chilling description of the GATS agreement in the WTO (= the services agreement in the FTAA). www.theecologist.org/lastfrontier.html 3. "The Future of Nation States," Maude Barlow's speech at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil including a very clear description of the FTAA. Download from! www.canadians.org 4. FTAA Primer. 20-page booklet with the FTAA's likely contents, its negotiating groups, its connections to other global trade bodies, and its effects on diverse human and natural populations. Contact ACERCA for single copies or bulk rates. 5. "America's Plan for the Americas," 28-page Critical analysis of the US government's negotiating positions on the FTAA. Download from www.art-us.org/Docs/apa.pdf 8. "Alternatives for the Americas: Building a People's Hemispheric Agreement." Download from www.web.ca/~comfront/alts4americas/eng/eng.html or see summary at www.art-us.org Videotapes "Danger Ahead," fifteen-minute videotape for union and other use. Contact Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, 617-524-8778 or bostonjwj@mindspring.com