Two Democratic contenders for the U.S. presidency suggest they'd like to
renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and it's as if the
sky were falling in Canada.
Conservatives and Liberals joined frightened CEOs across the country
last week to describe a potential U.S. abrogation of NAFTA under a
Democratic presidency as "disastrous." It is as if they all believe that
trade between Canada, the United States and Mexico would simply dry up
without an official treaty binding it together.
Either that or we would stop "building things together," as other
commentators have suggested as more true to the North American
relationship.
Nothing could be further from the truth. And if the Democrats are honest
enough to recognize NAFTA's numerous failings, then our politicians owe
Canada more than useless doomsday rhetoric.
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have declared that --failing a
complete renegotiation of the trade deal to include better, enforceable
protections for the environment and labour -- they would withdraw from
NAFTA within six months of taking office.
These issues were dealt with in toothless side agreements at the time of
signing the treaty in 1994 while corporate trade and investment remains
protected by NAFTA's Chapter 11, which allows companies to sue
governments for lost profits due to local, provincial or federal
regulations and policies.
As of Jan. 1, 2008, there had been 49 investor-state claims under
Chapter 11 (14 of them in Canada), nearly half of which have involved
challenges to government efforts to protect the environment or manage
resources. Wealthy oil giant Exxon Mobil is suing the federal government
for Newfoundland's requirement that some of the company's revenues from
offshore development be reinvested locally.
This discrepancy between citizens, or democratic rights, under NAFTA on
the one hand, and corporate rights on the other has not gone unnoticed
in North America. It has accompanied a widening gap between corporate
profits and real wages in both Canada and the United States; real wages
have been stagnant for 30 years while corporate profits have never been
higher.
If the issue of inequity is finally taking centre stage in the run-up to
the 2008 U.S. election, it is an indication of just how many Americans
want a new trading relationship with their neighbours -- one that
protects their jobs and the environment from the often socially and
physically destructive whims of large corporations.
So why is the Canadian government stuck in reverse, clinging to wishful
thinking about NAFTA and rushing into new, unsustainable and
anti-democratic continental agreements like the NAFTA-plus Security and
Prosperity Partnership (SPP) which just offers more of the same?
The SPP was created in March 2005 to deepen the NAFTA relationship based
entirely on corporate lobbying from groups like the Canadian Council of
Chief Executives (CCCE) and the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. The
CCCE boasts that its companies collectively administer $3.5 trillion in
assets and have annual revenues in excess of $800 billion.
These companies have been granted a disproportionate amount of influence
when it comes to economic, and now even security policy under the SPP.
Actually, they are the only non-governmental group allowed to attend
secretive annual SPP leaders summits, the fourth of which will take
place in New Orleans this April.
Before this week's comments on NAFTA, Obama had also come out strongly
against these executive meetings, writing in the Dallas Morning News
that as president he would still like to meet with the Canadian prime
minister and Mexican president once a year. "Unlike similar summits
under President Bush, these will be conducted with a level of
transparency that represents the close ties among our three countries."
Obama also said that he will "seek the active and open involvement of
citizens, labour, the private sector and non-governmental organizations
in setting the agenda and making progress."
The fact that Harper and his ministers have purposely kept these groups
as far away from the SPP as possible and are reluctant to even consider
opening up NAFTA is proof of how beholden our government is to corporate
interests. If our politicians would just open their eyes they would see
a Canadian electorate that is just as impatient for a fairer trading
model as its American friends.
Maude Barlow is the chairperson of the Council of Canadians.The Vancouver Sun, Special to the Sun
