[CTC] Korean trade minister nominee alludes to revisiting investor-state

[Arthur Stamoulis]

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/03/08/Trans-Pacific-Treaty-Threat/



Facing the Threat of the Trans-Pacific Treaty
It's 20 years since NAFTA. Its damage is why latest trade deal must be  
stopped.
By: By Raul Burbano, Kristen Beifus and Manuel Pérez-Rocha, 8 March  
2013, TheTyee.ca
View full article and comments: http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/03/08/Trans-Pacific-Treaty-Threat/

A 16th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations is  
underway in Singapore this week. Canada and Mexico join the nine other  
TPP countries for the second time since the U.S. government invited  
its NAFTA partners to join late last year.

The TPP is a super-sized trade deal-expanding on so called "next  
generation" trade and investment deals that NAFTA countries have  
pursued in the wake of the stalemate at the World Trade Organization.  
This pluri-lateral agreement poses serious new threats to North  
American communities -- threats that a tri-national movement of trade  
justice activists is preparing to fight in the lead-up to a possible  
July TPP negotiating round in Canada.

Since NAFTA was signed almost 20 years ago, all three North American  
countries have seen good jobs vanish, worsening income inequality,  
public services weakened through underfunding or offloaded to the  
private sector, increased food insecurity (in particular in Mexico),  
and ecosystems on the point of breaking. NAFTA promised a flourishing  
North American economy that would benefit all. In Jan. 2014, NAFTA has  
been in place for 20 years and the promised trickle down benefits have  
not been realized by communities.

Three nations, no winners

In the past 10 years, Canada has lost 500,000 manufacturing jobs. A  
new United Way Toronto reportfound that in and around Toronto,  
Canada's largest city, 20 per cent of people are now employed in  
precarious, unstable or part-time jobs. This type of employment has  
increased by 50 per cent in the past 20 years since NAFTA was signed.  
In this same period, not a single notable social program has been  
introduced or expanded. Free trade has permanently eroded our sense of  
what people can do together for the common good.

Canada is also facing over $2.5-billion worth of legal suites by  
corporations that are permitted to sue countries under NAFTA for  
potential profits if blocked by health and safety or environmental  
laws from conducting business as usual. Current suits include a U.S.  
corporation challenging a moratorium on natural gas fracking in  
Quebec, a court decision to annul a patent by Eli Lilly, a decision  
against opening a new gravel quarry in Ontario because of the likely  
effect on water and farmland, and many others "coming down the  
pipeline."

In Mexico millions of small farmers were displaced when NAFTA came  
into force in 1994 creating a massive push for migration to the United  
States. But NAFTA hit Mexico very hard again during the 2008-2009  
financial crisis given Mexico's dependency on the United States. In  
fact, Felipe Calderon's presidency has been characterized by the  
slowest growth since 1954, a mere 1.58 per cent in average from 2007  
to 2011, and, according to World Bank indicators, between 2007 and  
2010, GDP per capita in Mexico decreased by 3.71 per cent, which is  
among the worst performance in Latin America.

The United States, which is leading the TPP charge, has also suffered  
under NAFTA. The AFL-CIO in February challenged the benefit the TPP  
offers to workers, citing that the U.S. trade deficit "has increased  
dramatically under NAFTA -- from $75 billion in 1993, to $540 billion  
today (in nominal terms)." Since the implementation of NAFTA, says the  
AFL-CIO, "the growth in the trade deficit with Mexico has cost the  
United States nearly 700,000 net jobs." The AFL-CIO is calling for a  
Global New Deal that promotes growth "with equity, protect their  
health and safety and foster sustainable development."

Next generation of handcuffs

Next generation corporate trade deals like the TPP and the proposed  
"comprehensive" pacts that Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are pursuing  
with the European Union, purposely take away our ability to pursue  
alternative economic strategies. These deals are designed to ensure  
that governments have no power in the economy, and that they are only  
useful when they are using tax payer dollars to bail out large banks  
and other corporations.

Like NAFTA, the TPP will handcuff our ability to set regulations in  
key areas like finance, industry, the environment, public procurement  
and fostering programs to create jobs at home. Free trade offers  
corporate subsidies for the rich and cut-throat competition for  
everyone else. So it should come as no surprise that communities  
across the continent and the Western Hemisphere are mobilizing in what  
can be expected as the battle against the TPP.

On Dec. 1, hundreds of labour, community, public health and internet  
freedom advocates from Canada, the U.S and Mexico descended on the  
Peace Arch Park in Surrey, B.C., between Washington State and British  
Columbia. The Tri-National Unity Statement that came out of that  
strategic gathering has been signed by hundreds of organizations  
representing tens of thousands of people across the continent.

Since our Dec. 1 cross-border action, community and NGO organizations  
from central and Latin America are raising their collective voices in  
opposition to the TPP. This opposition was solidified at the People's  
Summit in Santiago de Chile -- parallel to summit EU-CELAC Summit --  
this past January where civil society gathered to express and share  
their concerns and develop strategies to stop it. They are calling out  
the TPP as a ‘tool of disintegration' in the region because it  
attempts to destabilize regional processes of integration that  
challenge the neoliberal model inherent in the TPP.

These alternatives include the Union of South American Nations  
(UNASUR) and The Community of Caribbean and Latin American States  
(CELAC), as well as economic blocs like MERCOSUR and ALBA trading  
regions. The TPP is seen in Latin America as a second attempt by the  
United States to push a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in the  
region with help from countries whose governments are subservient to  
de the U.S. led neoliberal ideology and "free trade" economics.

Stopping our governments from doing any more damage with corporate  
rights pacts like the TPP needs to be a priority of the peoples of  
North America. We must demand an alternative, more equitable and  
sustainable global trade regime. Trade and investment deals must  
respect and promote fundamental environmental rights, indigenous  
sovereignty, labor rights, including equal rights for migrant workers  
and people of color.

Communities and local governments need to be able to actively create  
high-wage, high-benefit jobs in ways that do not undermine the well- 
being of our sisters and brothers globally.

Rich people, poor communities

Governments must be able to promote democratic public policies in the  
public interest without fear of catastrophic lawsuits in non- 
democratic and non-transparent investment tribunals.

Free trade creates rich people not rich communities. We have 20 years  
of evidence from NAFTA... we don't want any more. Stop the TPP! Sign  
the tri-national statement of unity against the Trans-Pacific  
Partnership, and to sign-up to be more involved, go to www.tppxborder.org 
.
Raul Burbano is the program director of Common Frontiers (Canada).  
Kristen Beifus is the executive director of the Washington Fair Trade  
Coalition and Manuel Pérez-Rocha is a member of the Mexican Action  
Network on Free Trade (RMALC) and an associate fellow of the Institute  
for Policy Studies (IPS).
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