Declaration of Trade Working Group - IV Hemispheric Encounter against the FTAA

IV Hemispheric Encounter against the FTAA

And for a People's Integration

Havana, Cuba

May 2007

Declaration of Trade Working Group

The failure to reach an agreement in the multilateral negotiations of the WTO has resulted in a "mixed strategy" on the part of countries of the north, principally the United States and the European Union. This strategy has resulted in a proliferation of bilateral free trade and investment treaties with South and Central American countries. At the same time, pressure is applied to advance negotiations in mini-ministerials with no transparency. The new generation of Free Trade Agreements includes issues that correspond to a "WTO-plus" agenda, incorporating services, investment rules, government procurement, competition, market access and intellectual property - some of which have already been rejected by Southern American countries in Cancun.

The Doha round of WTO negotiations has been incapable of addressing the fundamental issues affecting our peoples such as: guaranteeing food sovereignty, access to adequate food prices and quality for everyone, protecting essential public services such as education, health, and water as fundamental rights of peoples, generating sufficient, stable, dignified, and well compensated jobs, and sustainable development. Multinational corporations take advantage of the current system, taking over natural recourses in an unregulated manner and advancing territorial colonization, while at the same time transferring production to places where labor is cheap and the rights of workers are denied, such as in the free trade zones and maquiladoras.

These processes are the result of policies designed within the framework of the Washington consensus, and could be aggravated by negotiations that accept weak offers for market access to the agriculture markets of the North in exchange for agreements to opening of markets in non agricultural areas. This will indisputably compound the negative environmental, social and labor impacts of free trade agreements already signed with the United States and those currently being negotiated with the European Union and Asian-Pacific countries. The Bush free trade agenda is encountering more difficulties every day, even in the United States where resistance is building against renewal of Trade Promotion Authority; an authorization that Congress gives the President to negotiate via fast track, a mechanism that has been utilized to increase the looting of our people.

For social movements, the struggle against free trade continues to be a priority for resistance throughout the continent. We are resisting free trade agreements in Central America, the Andean Region and the Caribbean. In North America we are resisting NAFTA+ or SPP as well as other expressions of free trade such as agreements with the European Union and predatory infrastructure projects such as Plan Puebla Panama, IIRSA in South America and against the construction of damns financed by the World Bank and the BID.

We resist "free trade" attempts to convert education from a human right into a commodity. We resist the privatization of public services such as water, health, electricity, and communications. We struggle for the re- nationalization of these services in countries where they have already been privatized.

We resist the ferocious nature of "free trade" in its intent to steal our natural resources, our energy reserves, our marine wealth, our forests, keeping in mind that free trade places our recourses and our work at the service of transnational corporations.

Despite the fact that a significant part of the continent has subscribed to free trade agreements, many countries have resisted and at this moment the poplar movements in Costa Rica and Colombia are mounting a fierce struggle against the FTA's.

In the case of Costa Rica we share the reservations and concerns expressed by the social movement of this country regarding the upcoming referendum to be carried out in September. Our concerns are based on the fact that a scenario is being configured in which the referendum will be carried out according to conditions set by the government and neo-liberal sectors. Nevertheless, the CAFTA referendum could signify a new defeat in the neo-liberal strategy and as with the FTAA, could be a further demonstration that popular movements can defeat free trade. Therefore, we issue a call to make the struggle against CAFTA in Costa Rica a continental campaign which mobilizes us at the global level to make this battle a new victory against neo-liberalism.

In the case of Colombia, whose government has become the tip of the lance for US penetration into South America and has been identified by its own people as a promoter of violence and corruption. We should take all possible actions to reinforce the international campaign to expose the authoritarian and criminal nature of the Colombian government and contribute to isolating it in the international arena in order to achieve our goal of making ratification of this FTA more difficult in the United States Congress.

We are also preparing to resist the European Union Agreement of Association with Central America and the Andean Region. The European Unions' new commercial strategy goes beyond the WTO and is a threat equally as serious as the FTA's with the United States. This proposal by the European Union is nothing more than a political prescription serving the interest of European transnational corporations which are offered new markets and investment opportunities with explicit demands for natural resources, including energy reserves. European companies plan to exploit these resources with the help of new investment rules opening sectors such as fishing, forestry, mining, all at the cost of local communities and food sovereignty.

Proposed Actions

a) Make the CAFTA Referendum in Costa Rica into a Continental Campaign - No to the FTAs. Given that what is a stake is the strategy of U.S. bilateral treaties, we propose:

-To accompany and disseminate communications, denunciations and requests on the part of Costa Rican popular organizations throughout the hemisphere, during the preparatory process and participation in the Referendum.

-Create conditions for international observers from the popular movements of the region to participate in the Referendum.

b) Guarantee that studies on the negative impacts of CAFTA implementation in Central America are circulated at the continental level in order to strengthen the struggle against free trade which is underway throughout the continent.

c) Support the campaign of denunciations against the Uribe Government in order to block approval of the FTA with Colombia. Place particular attention on National Elections in October 2007 and attempt to send international observers from the social movements.

d) Support the Campaign against Fast Track being promoted in the United States.

e) Develop a campaign against the Agreement of Association with the European Union in Central America and the Andean Region.

f) Continue to monitor WTO negotiations that undermine: agriculture and food sovereignty, universal and free access to public services, industrial development in our countries and the possibility for a regional integration based on solidarity.

g) Continue the commitment to struggle together with global social movements for transparency in negotiations and for the derailment of the WTO.