[discuss-dan] Fwd: ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION, ONE YEAR LATER

[Persephone Moonshadow Howling Womyn <moonshadow@persephone.org>]

>To: americanlands-list@igc.topica.com
>From: Steve Holmer <wafcdc@americanlands.org>
>Subject: ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION, ONE YEAR LATER
>Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 14:02:28 -0800
>
>To: All Activists
>From: Jim Jontz
>Date: December 8, 2000
>
>ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION, ONE YEAR LATER
>
>Last week marked the anniversary of the WTO Ministerial meeting in
>Seattle WA that drew the attention of observers around the world to the
>forces in the global economy that threaten workers, the environment, and
>human rights.  Thousands of citizens marched in the streets of Seattle,
>"Teamsters and Turtles, together at last," and when the global trade
>ministers ended their talks, plans of the WTO's leaders (including the
>"Global Free Logging Agreement" pushed by the U.S.) were left in the
>dust.
>
>Where are we, one year later?  Although WTO nations are still arguing
>among themselves about blame for the events in Seattle, the action in
>the global trade arena has shifted elsewhere.  The U.S. and Chile
>announced plans recently to begin negotiations next month on  a
>"bilateral" trade agreement that will surely be a concern to forest
>activists because of the vulnerability of Chile's forests to U.S.
>logging companies.  The Cascada project by Boise Cascade to build the
>world's largest chip mill in the midst of the Chilean rainforest region
>is testimony to what "free"  trade and investment means to forests.
>
>The bigger issue, however, is a hemispheric trade agreement that would
>extend NAFTA to virtually all nations of the Western hemisphere, the
>Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).   Both George Bush and Al Gore
>support the FTAA. There has been virtually no public discussion of it,
>and no text of the agreement being negotiated has been made available to
>the public.  What we do know, however, is that the FTAA became much more
>important after Seattle when the U.S.  adopted a strategy of using the
>FTAA to win various provisions that could then be taken back to the WTO
>and leveraged into a global trade and investment deal.  The investment
>protection provisions likely to be included in the FTAA are by
>themselves ample reason to alarm environmental, human rights, and
>workers advocates.   Under NAFTA, companies have the right to sue
>national governments when regulations adversely affect their
>investments.  This "regulatory takings" provision has already been used
>by the Ethyl Corporation to win damages from Canada, and the Metalclad
>Company to win damages from Mexico.
>
>The U.S. Congress will likely be asked to give "Fast Track" authority to
>the next President (Bush or Gore), approving the same process used to
>consider NAFTA and GATT in which the Congress in essence writes a "blank
>check" to the new Administration to negotiate trade deals, and then
>agrees not to seek amendments of any new agreements, but only consider
>them with an "up or down" vote.  The debate over Fast Track will be one
>of the most important opportunities that forest and other environmental
>advocates have to influence the direction of our nation's trade policy.
>
>Ironically, one of the most important impacts of the "Battle of Seattle"
>may have been to globalize the perspective of citizens around the world
>— especially those of us in the U.S. — and help us understand how our
>struggles are linked to those of others.  Will that understanding inform
>our actions, as we enter a New Year  and make plans for what, and how we
>do our work?   The answer to that question, more than any other, may
>determine whether the events of Seattle a year ago will have a lasting
>impact.
>Steve Holmer
>Campaign Coordinator
>American Lands
>726 7th Street SE
>Washington, D.C. 20003
>202/547-9105
>202/547-9213 fax
>mailto:wafcdc@americanlands.org
>http://www.americanlands.org
>
>To subscribe or unsubscribe please send a message to 
>mailto:wafcdc@americanlands.org
>..............




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