Labor alarmed about secret trade negotiations

By DON McINTOSH, Staff Reporter

Five weeks from now - April 18 to 22 - trade ministers from 34 North American and South American nations will meet in Quebec City, Canada, to plan the launch of a hemisphere-wide "free trade" area by 2005.

Organized labor, environmentalists, and citizen groups would like to know the details of the proposed trade agreement that would establish this "Free Trade Area of the Americas" (FTAA), but the negotiations have been conducted in secret since their launch at the 1994 "Summit of the Americas" in Miami.

Even the positions of the U.S. negotiating team have been kept secret from Congress and the public at large (but not from over 500 corporate representatives who have security clearances and access to FTAA documents).

Still, trade policy experts in labor and environmental organizations are making educated guesses about the likely details of the developing agreement, and they're alarmed by what they think is about to be proposed.

In December and January members of Congress and 300 non-government organizations demanded that FTAA negotiators release the draft text of the agreement; in response, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released "summaries," which, while short on specifics, give a general idea of the shape of the treaty.

In effect, the FTAA would be the North America Free Trade Agreement times 10, with U.S. wages, environmental standards, and consumer protections under attack from competition with some of the world's poorest countries.

Since 1994, more than 360,000 U.S. workers have lost their jobs as a direct result of NAFTA - most of them because their companies relocated to Mexico to take advantage of that country's lower wages. With a U.S. minimum wage of $5.15 an hour and Mexican minimum wage of $3.40 a day, U.S. production workers can't compete. And even when U.S. manufacturers don't relocate to Mexico, they use the threat that they might to depress the wages of their U.S. workers and defeat union organizing drives.

In the analysis of the AFL-CIO, NAFTA has strengthened the bargaining power of multinational corporations, limited the ability of governments to regulate in the public interest, and forced workers into more direct competition with each other - with downward pressure on their living standards.

AFL-CIO policy experts believe the FTAA would extend the most damaging aspects of NAFTA to the entire Western Hemisphere (except Cuba) and throw in several additional ideas being proposed in the World Trade Organization (WTO):

* Corporations (but not individuals or non-governmental organizations) would have the right to sue governments if laws protecting public health and safety and the environment diminish potential profits.

* Laws protecting public health and safety and the environment would be struck down if international trade tribunals found that they restricted trade more than necessary.

* Governments would be prohibited from banning imports on the grounds of violation of worker rights or human rights or environmental degradation.

* Governments would be forbidden to place any restriction on foreign investments.

* Governments would be forbidden to require a certain amount of local content in production.

In addition, the FTAA agreement would very likely increase pressure on governments to privatize public services like education, health care, mail service, telecommunications, electricity, drinking water, prisons, and social services.

What's more, the FTAA negotiators have rejected any attempts to place workers' rights or environmental standards on the agenda.

"In our view, this trade agreement would be a disaster," said Thia Lee, assistant director of public policy at the national AFL-CIO. "It would be a totally unacceptable extension of corporate power, exacerbating a situation where workers are already losing out."

Labor Reaches Out To Oppose The Treaty

To oppose the treaty, the AFL-CIO is joining with organizations and individuals in countries all over the hemisphere: Trade unionists, environmentalists, students, family farmers, women's organizations, religious groups, and representatives from indigenous communities. Opposition to the treaty is being coordinated through a loose-knit coalition known as the Hemispheric Social Alliance.

In a statement issued Feb. 14, the AFL-CIO Executive Council declared defeating the FTAA a top priority. "We call on our members to make their voices heard in Quebec City as part of the international actions, and join in activities to 'Localize the Movement for Global Justice' in partnership with Jobs With Justice and other allies in communities across the country," the statement said. Central labor councils in the Northeastern United States are mobilizing for a series of protests in Quebec City and on the border of Canada, which will be similar to the protests at the November 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle.

Many cities in the United States and in other countries are also organizing protests to show opposition to the treaty.

In Washington, the Whatcom County Central Labor Council is joining with the Vancouver and District Labour Council of the Canadian Labour Congress to host an April 21 rally to oppose the FTAA in its current form. The rally starts at 10 a.m. at Peace Arch Park, which straddles the Canada-U.S. border just north of Blaine, Wash. on Interstate 5. The event has the backing of the King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish County central labor councils, and is likely to be the largest in the Northwest.

In Portland, a loose coalition called Local to Global is meeting every two weeks. The group, composed of labor, environmental, human rights, and democracy activists, has a website: www.localtoglobal.org, and a phone number for more information -503-228-6389. The group is planning a rally Saturday, April 21, at noon at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland. As of February, a core of volunteers had been trained as speakers and were fanning out to union locals and neighborhood associations to spread awareness of the treaty.

Gathering in Buenos Aires

Though the Quebec City meeting will prompt the largest show of citizen opposition to the FTAA, an earlier test of the public temper will occur April 6-7, when trade ministers will meet in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to hammer out final details of what would be taken to Quebec City.

Representatives from the AFL-CIO plan to be there, as well as trade unionists, environmentalists, and other citizen groups from all over the hemisphere.

"We expect some of the strongest opposition to come from Latin American unions," Lee said.

The Battle Over Fast Track

Then, leading up to the Quebec City meeting, the AFL-CIO predicts a battle in the U.S. Congress if, as expected, President Bush seeks so-called "fast-track" negotiating authority.

"Fast-track" authority, which must be approved by Congress, allows the president a free hand in negotiating trade treaties, in that whatever treaty he brings to Congress must be approved or rejected without amendment and with only limited discussion.

The fact that fast track had been granted helped former President Clinton push NAFTA through Congress in 1993. But two subsequent proposals for fast track were defeated. It's unclear how the new Congress will vote when the issue comes up. Last year, a law establishing permanent normal trade relations with China passed by a healthy margin, in a vote that was widely interpreted as a referendum on "free trade."

Critics of the FTAA are declaring Thursday, March 22 a "call-in" day, in which people are urged to contact members of Congress and the U.S. trade representative to express opposition to fast track and the FTAA.

At a recent Oregon AFL-CIO Legislative Conference, union leaders met with Senator Ron Wyden and impressed upon him that defeating fast track is labor's number one issue in the coming months. "This is not peripheral," said Oregon AFL-CIO Research Director Lynn-Marie Crider. "This is a central labor issue."

An Alternative Vision For Trade

Meeting in Los Angeles Feb. 14, the AFL-CIO Executive Council issued a call for a rejection of the current FTAA and for a new direction in the negotiations "away from the failed NAFTA model of corporate privilege and toward a new hemispheric model that prioritizes equitable, democratic, and sustainable development."

AFL-CIO officials say they're not opposed to a hemispheric trade treaty. But, they argue, in order for such a treaty to benefit workers it would have to include:

* Enforceable worker rights and environmental standards;

* The continued right of countries to regulate the flow of speculative capital in order to protect their economies from excessive volatility;

* Protection for the rights of migrant workers throughout the hemisphere, regardless of their legal status;

* Compliance with the "revised drug strategy" adopted by the World Health Organization, which says that public health should be paramount in trade disputes;

* Debt relief measures that will improve the ability of the developing countries to fund education, health care, and infrastructure needs, thereby contributing to closing the gap between rich and poor nations and reducing inequality within nations;

* Equitable and transparent market access rules that allow for effective protection against import surges; and

* A transparent, inclusive, and democratic process, both for the negotiations of the FTAA and for its implementation.