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Trade Experts: Renegotiate NAFTA |
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Trade experts from throughout the Americas say U.S. trade policies must be completely revised and existing agreements renegotiated and agree with the Obama administration’s proposal to renegotiate part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that allowed unsafe Mexican trucks to drive on U.S. highways.
In a forum hosted by the International Labor Rights Forum, the Global Policy Network and the Economic Policy Institute, trade union leaders from the United States, Mexico, Central America and Colombia said that existing and proposed trade agreements have failed to live up to their promise and have actually made things worse.
Patricia Juan Pineda, counsel for the FAT, Mexico’s independent union federation, told the forum:
During the negotiation of NAFTA, critics claimed that many small businesses that maintain most of Mexico’s employment, would close and that the agreement would create lower salaries and unstable work conditions. Fifteen years later, many of the criticisms have become a reality.
A big problem with NAFTA and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is that neither protects workers’ rights. Bama Athreya, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum, said:
Twenty-five years of experience promoting labor rights conditions in trade agreements has shown us that we need better ways to measure progress and better tools to hold governments accountable for protecting workers’ rights.
Omar Salazar Alvarado, executive director of ASEPROLA, a Costa Rica-based labor rights advocacy organization, added:
It’s a major mistake to believe that labor rights are protected under CAFTA. The intention was always to protect trade and investments and not labor rights. Today we have the possibility to correct this mistake.
Participants in the forum also called on the U.S. government to drop consideration of a proposed trade agreement with Colombia. Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, president of Sintraminercol, Colombia’s coal miners’ union and a human rights activist, puts it this way:
If the U.S. and Canadian governments approve the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, they would be legitimizing the crimes against Colombian labor leaders, crimes that occur on average once every three days. Those that are responsible are basically the corporations and the governments, the same groups that would be the first to benefit from the agreement.
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for union members. The Colombian government has not vigorously investigated or prosecuted the killing of trade union members. At the current pace of investigations and trials, it would take 37 years to prosecute the backlog of cases. And the caseload is growing—the rate of killings, which had fallen for a few years, jumped sharply last year by 25 percent.
Meanwhile, as part of the omnibus fiscal year 2009 appropriations bill, Congress banned unsafe Mexican trucks on U.S. highways. The Bush administration ignored a congressional ban on Mexican trucks operating beyond the 25-mile commercial zone around the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Transportation Department’s inspector general reported on Feb. 6 that despite repeated assurances that the federal inspectors would “check every truck, every time” it crossed the border, the Transportation Department couldn’t determine whether such inspections had occurred.
Teamsters President James Hoffa says the “driving public is put at risk when trucks from Mexico that don’t meet U.S. standards are allowed to roam our highways.
The Mexican government has not held up their end of the bargain to meet U.S. standards. Mexican trucks are unsafe and Mexican drivers are not required to meet the same criteria that American drivers must meet to earn a commercial driver’s license. It’s long past time to close the border to these unguided missiles.
Mexico is planning to increase duties on $2.4 billion of U.S. exports of commodities like wheat, beans, beef, and rice in retaliation for the truck ban. Jane Winebrenner writes in the Daily Labor Report the Obama White House has asked for new legislation to create a new trucking project that meets the concerns of Congress and the union movement.
The expansion of Mexican trucking in the United States was negotiated under the 1994 NAFTA.
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For an addttional perspective:
Pentagon drafts border plan as Mexico hits US protectionism
By Bill Van Auken
19 March 2009
(Link below to full story.)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/mexi-m19.shtml
“Relations between the US and Mexico deteriorated further this week as the Mexican government imposed a set of tariff increases against some 90 US imports in retaliation for the Obama administration signing legislation that ended a pilot program allowing Mexican long-haul trucks to operate on US highways.
The trade dispute has erupted in the midst of growing tensions between the two countries over the increasingly militarized drug war being waged by the Mexican government against narcotics traffickers. The Pentagon’s US Joint Forces Command issued a recent report comparing Mexico to Pakistan as potential “failed states” facing the danger of a “rapid and sudden collapse.” The State Department, meanwhile, has issued a travelers’ warning in response to the drug violence, which has claimed 1,000 lives so far this year.”
There is little doubt that CAFTA has done little if nothing to protect worker rights. Obviously Colombia being the most prominent example. Those congressmen (mostly Republicans) wanting passing of the FTA with Colombia keep citing that 90% of the Colombian goods enter the USA duty free (because of CAFTA) while the USA pays tariffs on goods to Colombia. A couple things they don’t mention is that to lower tariffs on US goods to Colombia does not require an FTA, Colombia can just do it. But our so-called good friend does not. These same proponents claim that FTA with Colombia will help the people in Colombia by giving them work to send things to the USA. That is wrong as shown by proof. During the time we have bee helping Colombia with a more open market for their goods with CAFTA there has been an increase in deaths of union members (more in 2008 than in 2007) and the rich have increased their distance over the poor in a country that already has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth in the world. Minimum wage in the country is under $240 a month for a 48 hour work week. In the last two years when labor and business have been unable to negotiate an increase, the president just gave enough for the people to meet inflation. They were immediately behind in the next month. Consider that to buy a gallon of paint with minimum wage in the USA requires approximately 2 hours of work. In Colombia a worker must work over 12 hours. Imagine what it is like for bigger items like American made stoves. Fear of death keeps many places from negotiating for descent wages. It is the massive unchecked Colombian corruption that continues the deaths of union members and the fear going. It is that corruption that has not been adequately addressed in the country. It is the corruption and impunity for too many that keeps even the best labor laws written into an FTA from being enforced in Colombia. In order for Colombia to be a FAIR trading partner for the USA its people must be able to negotiate for fair wages and afford American products. As Nancy Pelosi and other members of congress have stated Colombia must show concrete and sustained proof they are making progress in this area. This does not happen overnight with just a few sentences in an FTA. It takes time. Manipulated numbers and an increase in the country of deaths of union members and displacement of people shows neither concrete nor sustained results. It is possible that the economic elite of Colombia are going to have to sacrifice. Unfortunately as stated by a former US ambassador to Colombia and others, so far the Colombian economic elite have refused to sacrifice to strengthen their country. History has shown that Colombia does not make progress until denied funds. Yes, NAFTA and CAFTA have to be revisited to protect workers in the member countries as well as help strengthen those countries and provide for a trade that helps everyone including the workers.
Let Mexico increase duties on $2.4 billion on the U.S. exports of commodities like wheat, beans, beef, and rice. It is a small price to pay for not allowing their trucks on our highways!
These so called “Free Trade Agreements” have hurt workers on both sides of the fence. Why do we need them at all? I say tax everything coming in to the U.S. and no tax on any exports from the U.S. Maybe this way we could start manufacturing our own products again! I was helping my Mother clean out her closets. I was amazed that most of those old clothes were all made in the USA. That is not the case any more. You are lucky to see anything made in the USA. We have made ourselves dependent on foreign products. Not to mention that we have given away all of those jobs. Cheaper is not always better in the long run.