ALAI, América Latina en Movimiento
2002-06-14
FTAA or a different integration?
Magdalena León
|
|
In 1994, right after the United States launched the initiative on the Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), different groups of the civil society
have followed this process through a critical attitude, presenting
evidences and arguments on why its application is not convenient. This
experience, that calls for the exercise of civil rights regarding economic
decisions, has been fruitful as it is heading now towards resistance as
well as the quest for alternatives for a different integration.
The first and main preoccupation was the secret nature of the negotiations.
If this instrument deals with legal and constitutional aspects, among
others, the fact that definitions were decided behind the backs of
parliaments, public institutions, and the people/citizens is inadmissible.
The final document was made public in 2001, as a result of a systematic
endeavor of informative and pressure work. This is a strategic
achievement, though we will not benefit from it if parliaments and the
people do not know about it, do not take position or undertake action about
the Agreement. Many of these tasks are still pending.
The participation of civil society has had special visibility at the
hemispheric summits of Santiago de Chile (2000) and Quebec (2001), as well
as the World Social Forum (Porto Alegre 2002). These massive mobilizations
are based on analysis and consensus, which are less well known, but crucial
if we are to take a stand in the face of this treaty, which implies a form
of integration founded on the continuation and exacerbation of injustice
and inequality. The FTAA establishes the rights and interests of
transnational companies above those of countries and citizens, affecting
national sovereignty and human rights. Different analyses demonstrate
foreseeable losses in the areas of food safety, health, environment, labor
and gender rights, among others—tinged with implications that need to be
examined with each national, productive, and social context.
Seven years after the implementation of the North Atlantic Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico emerges as a key referent. Balances show that
this project has paid high social, productive and environmental costs
without obtaining the desired macroeconomic results. In light of these and
some other evidence, civil society is coming together in total opposition
to the FTAA. It is not adequate, real, or viable to obtain presumed
commercial opportunities or to introduce social clauses if one country's
hegemony, the dominance of transnational companies, and the establishment
of total market, control the direction of this process. This is the
perspective of the Continental Campaign against the FTAA that took place in
Quito this past May, at which delegations of multiple actors: peasants,
students, workers, intellectuals, indigenous people, and businesspeople
participated.
At the same time, it underlines the urgency of advancing towards another
kind of integration: one that will articulate countries in equitable
conditions, promote a new development model, stimulate production oriented
toward people's necessities, fight against gender discrimination,
strengthen diversity and the exercise of individual and collective rights,
be based on common history; an integration that will go beyond market
limitations and its inequities.
Ecuador will host a new episode of the FTAA negotiations as the hemispheric
ministerial meeting will take place there in October. The voice of
continental civil society will appear stronger and unanimously opposed to
this plan, and hopefully Ecuadorian society will be more aware and
committed to this crucial topic that affects our immediate future.
* Latin American Network of Women Transforming the Economy.
http://www.alainet.org/active/2377
|
|
|
[Página de búsquedas]
[Página principal]
[Main Page]
[Regresar]
Quienes somos | Área Mujeres |
Minga Informativa de Movimientos
Sociales
|
|