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Putting People Before Profits
A Ten Point Justice Agenda for the Americas
March 2001
In April 2001 two groups of people will converge on Quebec City.
One is the leaders of 34 countries of the Hemisphere (all save Cuba);
another is a varied group of concerned citizens representing people’’s
movements from all regions throughout the Americas, and across the
globe. The leaders will attempt to further globalization——a
process which has increased poverty and exclusion——through
the creation of a sweeping hemispheric agreement called the Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The peoples' movements, though diverse in demands, strategies
and tactics, will bring a common message to the Quebec Summit——that
the economy must serve the human needs of all, rather than enrich
a minority. They are demanding a more democratic process for economic
integration, one that includes broad-based citizen participation
and transparency around negotiations. Our faith tradition calls
us to care for our neighbour and the earth. We believe the test
of any economic agreement is the degree to which it enhances the
well being, dignity and essential human rights of all citizens,
including the right to adequate nutrition and housing, education,
health care, fair and safe working conditions and a healthy environment.
An FTAA that does not meet this test must be rejected.
In solidarity with the peoples' movements throughout the hemisphere,
we call on the leaders at the Quebec Summit to support an Agenda
for the Americas that:
- Ensures human rights take precedence over commercial interests.
Commitments Canada has made under the UN Declaration of Human
Rights and other internationally recognized agreements on labour
and environmental protection must take precedence over investors'
rights as inscribed in trade agreements. Human rights encompass
civil and political rights and also social, economic and cultural
rights including the right to adequate food, housing, education
and health care. An integration agreement must ensure that minorities
and vulnerable sectors of the population are not excluded.
- Gives priority to eradicating poverty, generating high quality
jobs and economic stability. An integration agreement must give
priority to genuine poverty eradication. Agreements should foster
high quality employment and not phase out secure unionized jobs
in favour of insecure contract work. Investment rules must allow
governments to set performance requirements that screen out unproductive,
speculative capital flows and channel investment into stable,
long-term development.
- Protects the environment. The primacy of commitments made to
international environmental treaties must be honoured in any new
trade agreements. Governments must retain the capacity to regulate
corporations so that they do not damage citizens’’
right to a healthy environment. In particular, any economic integration
agreement must not include an investor-state dispute resolution
procedure such as that in NAFTA which allows foreign corporations
to sue for lost earnings resulting from enforcement of government
regulations. (For example, Ethyl corporation sued Canada for lost
profits because of a ban on the toxic gasoline additive MMT. Canada
rescinded the ban and agreed to pay Ethyl $13 million in compensation.)
- Protects human health. Citizens’’ rights under the
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to a standard of living
adequate for health and well being, as well as to medical care
must not be undermined or violated by any economic integration
agreement. Specific populations, such as those suffering from
HIV/AIDS, must not be denied inexpensive generic versions of life-saving
drugs in order to protect the monopoly profits of pharmaceutical
companies.
- Ensures food security. Countries should have the right to exclude
the production of staple foods from trade agreements. Liberalization
of agricultural trade, removal of farm subsidies throughout Latin
America and changes to the land tenure system in Mexico have undermined
food security and forced millions of people off their land and
into urban slums.
- Upholds the right to access essential social services for all
citizens as provided for in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Public services in areas such as water, education, health
care and housing must be strengthened and not undermined by the
intrusion of private service providers. Transnational corporations
want the Services Chapter of the FTAA to build on the WTO services
code, known as GATS, which treats public services at best as a
missed commercial opportunity for foreign investors, and at worst
unfair competition for foreign service providers.
- Gives special and differential treatment to small and less developed
countries. Economic integration agreements must redress the imbalance
in negotiating leverage and economic power between large, industrial
states and small, developing countries by providing for special
and differential treatment for the latter.
- Releases countries from intolerable and unjust debt burdens.
In the Americas, annual debt payments exceed new financial inflows
creating an immoral drain on poor countries' resources. The illegitimate
debts of the developing countries of the Americas must be annulled.
These include debts that cannot be serviced without causing harm
to people and communities, debt incurred by illegitimate debtors,
debts incurred for illegitimate uses and debts incurred with illegitimate
terms.
- Gives governments the right to control their development. International
financial institutions continue to impose Structural Adjustment
Programs (SAPs) on the poor countries of the Americas. These programs
which include trade liberalization, exacerbate inequalities as
their austerity measures fall disproportionately on the poor,
especially women. SAPs involve an unacceptable intervention in
the affairs of sovereign states. These programs must be eliminated,
and the power of the institutions that promote them must be dramatically
reduced.
- Gives citizens broad-based access to the process. Citizens must
have direct access to the design and implementation of economic
integration agreements. Governments must submit economic integration
agreements to democratic consultations in each of the countries
involved. The right to freedom of expression——including
dissent——must be respected. Citizens of the Americas
need to know what is being negotiated so that there can be real
public debate on policies that will directly affect all of us.
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