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Overview: The FTAA – It’s Hazardous to your Health!
Until May 2003, KAIROS will lead a petition campaign across Canada
to persuade the Canadian federal government to stop negotiations
on the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement. (FTAA). The campaign
focuses on members of congregations across Canada, asking them to
join growing hemispheric opposition to the controversial negotiations.
The campaign is being carried out in partnership with Common Frontiers
– a coalition of church, labour, human rights, environmental,
anti-poverty, development, student and social justice organizations.
It springs from the Canadian churches’
long-standing concern about the social and ecological consequences
of international trade agreements.
Like hundreds of civil society organizations throughout the hemisphere,
KAIROS believes that any international trade agreement must be rooted
in respect for economic justice, the environment and human rights.
If the current negotiations reach fruition, KAIROS believes they
will result in rising poverty, environmental degradation and human
rights abuse throughout the 34 countries to which they apply. Ratification
would conflict with Christian values that call on us to protect
the earth and all of its citizens.
The FTAA poses a particularly severe threat to public health, Canada’s
medicare system and access to affordable medicines.
The petition to be circulated across Canada centres on three demands:
| 1. |
STOP negotiations of the FTAA and all trade
agreements that put profits before public well-being –
and remove Chapter 11 from NAFTA, which allows investors to
sue governments for public policies that curb profits, even
those that protect public health or the environment.
Under NAFTA, on which the FTAA is modelled, Chapter 11 allows
foreign investors to sue national governments for compensation,
and overturn measures designed to protect human health and
the natural environment. Corporations have successfully challenged
Canadian restrictions on a toxic gasoline additive, a Mexican
municipal ban on the construction of dangerous waste disposal
facilities, and Canadian restrictions on the export of PCBs.
A suit involving a California ban on another toxic gasoline
additive is still pending. |
| 2. |
LOOK at the economic instability, the grotesque rich-poor
disparities, and the social and environmental damage caused
by economic and trade liberalization.
A recent United Nations study confirms poverty is growing
in those developing economies that have the most open trading
regimes. In 2001, following a fact-finding mission to Mexico,
Canadian church leaders released a report revealing how removal
of subsidies and assistance to small farmers under NAFTA has
had disastrous effects for indigenous and campesino farmers.
With the removal of tariffs, cheap corn and beans flooded
the Mexican market, making it impossible for Mexican producers
to compete. To make matters worse, NAFTA also eliminated credit
for small farmers, leaving them at the mercy local loan sharks
who charge extremely high interest rates. |
| 3. |
LISTEN to Canadians who demand that universal Medicare
and environmental protections be preserved – and to
citizens throughout the Americas who reject the FTAA and demand
respect for human rights and national sovereignty.
In late 2002 in a popular referendum on the FTAA, 9.8 million
Brazilians voted to reject the FTAA. The Brazilian referendum
had significant church support. After referendum results were
known, Bishop Demitirio Valentini of Sao Paulo declared “We
say no to the FTAA. It is an imposition on us that will not
lead to free trade but to a monopoly for foreign products.”
Ninety per cent of Canadians want a parliamentary debate
on the FTAA and 74% support a national referendum on this
new free trade deal (source: Canadian Labour Congress poll). |
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