[asia-apec 1693] Mobilisations against FTAA

[APEC Monitoring Group]

Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 00:13:54 -0500 (EST)
From: "la C.L.A.C." <clac at tao.ca>
Subject: stopftaa: Quebec 2001: Update

--- CLAC UPDATE -- December 2000 ---

CONTENTS:
- What's happening next April 2001? 
- What is the FTAA? (see also WHAT IS FTAA? at bottom)
- What is the CLAC?
- What is CASA? 
- April 20th Day of Action
- Carnival Against Capitalism
- Other Key Dates and Events
- Quebec City Consulta - January 27-28
- Caravans and Visits
- Affinity Groups
- Peoples' Global Action (PGA)
- Other Groups
- Logistical Information: Food, Housing & Transport
- Legal Committee
- The Border
- Medical Committee
- CLAC Committee and Working Group Contacts
- Getting More Information
- How to Help and Get Involved
- Basic Contact Information

- plus What is "FTAA"?


WHAT'S HAPPENING NEXT APRIL 2001?: Next April 20-22, 2001, the Summit of
the Americas meeting will be taking place in Quebec City (the previous two
Summits were held in Miami (1994) and Santiago (1998)). The Summit brings
together all the 34 leaders of North, South and Central America, as well
as the Caribbean (except Cuba). The Summit intends to talk about issues
like hemispheric integration and migration, security and terrorism,
democracy and human rights, as well as the proposed Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA)  agreement. The Summit of the Americas is in many ways a
pre-packaged media spectacle for the leaders of the hemisphere, in a
controlled atmosphere of gala dinners, cocktail parties and photo ops.
Thousands of delegates and media representatives are to attend the
gathering, as well as thousands of police in what will be the largest
security and police operation in Canadian history.


WHAT IS THE FTAA?: In simple terms, the FTAA is the planned extension of
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the entire hemisphere
(except Cuba). It's not just a geographic extension, but also an extension
of the reach of big business into vast areas of public policy. The FTAA is
to be fully WTO-compatible, as well as include investment sections that
are identical to the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). The FTAA
was first launched at the Miami Summit (1994) and nine negotiating groups
have been actively meeting and negotiating since the Santiago Summit
(1998). The proposed deadline to sign and implement the FTAA is 2005.
According to Canada's Trade Minister, "The FTAA is inextricably linked to
the Summit of the Americas process." Together, the Summit and the FTAA are
two key ways to promote American imperialism and Canadian paternalism in
Latin America. The actual negotiating of the FTAA occurs within the
working groups who have most recently been meeting in Miami. These working
groups in turn report to the trade ministers of their respective
countries. The trade ministers meet once a year. This year's meeting is to
take place in Argentina in early April, a few weeks before the Quebec City
Summit.   (see also WHAT IS FTAA? at bottom)


WHAT IS THE CLAC?: Partially in response to the upcoming Summit of the
Americas meeting, and partially to reinforce existing local networks of
resistance, the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (la Convergence des luttes
anti-capitalistes, or CLAC) came together last April in Montreal, one full
year before the Summit. The CLAC basis of unity (attached below) asserts
clear opposition to capitalism, imperialism, neo-liberalism and patriarchy
while asserting values of mutual aid, solidarity and genuine democracy. It
is autonomous, decentralized and non-hierarchical, and rejects
bureaucratic, top-down models of organizing. Respecting a diversity of
tactics, the CLAC supports the use of a variety of creative initiatives,
ranging from popular education to direct action. With regards to the
Summit of the Americas, and the FTAA, the CLAC adopts a confrontational
attitude, and rejects reformist alternatives like lobbying which cannot
have a major impact on inherently anti-democratic processes. For more info
about CLAC's "Projects and Initiatives", please e-mail clac at tao.ca.


WHAT IS CASA?: The CLAC will be collaborating closely with the recently
formed Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (le Comite d'Accueil du
Sommet des Ameriques, or CASA). CASA is a Quebec City-based group,
comprised of activists and organizers who are involved in local grassroots
struggles.  Their basis of unity includes anti-capitalism,
anti-patriarchy, a refusal of hierarchies, autonomy, non-reformism and a
respect for a diversity of tactics. CASA, like CLAC, meet in open,
decisional, general assemblies. CLAC will be collaborating with CASA on
logistics, awareness raising and other actions. CASA can be reached at
their temporary e-mail address:  la_casa2001 at hotmail.com.


APRIL 20th DAY OF ACTION: The CLAC and CASA will be working together
closely in raising awareness, as well as helping to reinforce and build
existing networks of resistance to capitalist globalization. We are also
looking beyond April, focusing on continuing mobilizing efforts after the
Quebec Summit. As well, we want to avoid the dynamic of "summit-hopping",
and are encouraging local actions as much as mobilizing specifically for
Quebec City. However, one major focal point will clearly be the Summit
itself, particularly a Day of Action scheduled for Friday, April 20, when
the Summit of the Americas is due to commence in Quebec City. The Day of
Action will respect a diversity of tactics, and aims to disrupt, to the
maximum extent possible, the holding of the Summit of the Americas
meeting. We are encouraging as many people as possible to mobilize for
direct action, in Quebec City and elsewhere, on April 20, 2001.


CARNIVAL AGAINST CAPITALISM: The CLAC is also organizing a Carnival
against Capitalism that is to include events in Quebec City and Montreal
over the month of April, and which culminates with the Day of Action on
April 20. The Carnival will include conferences, teach-ins, concerts,
cabarets, workshops, street theatre, protests and direct action. The exact
event schedule will be announced in the upcoming weeks and months.


OTHER KEY DATES AND EVENTS: The Summit of the Americas starts in Quebec
City on Friday April 20 and is due to end on the evening of Sunday, April
22.  There will probably be some bilateral meetings between countries just
before and after those dates. The main Summit of the Americas meeting will
take place at the Quebec City Convention Center (Centre des Congres de
Quebec), and country delegations will occupy practically every major hotel
in downtown Quebec City. There is a scheduled photo-op for the leaders at
Quebec's Citadel sometime during the weekend. The Ministers of Trade for
the Americas are meeting in Buenos Aires in early April, as is the
Americas Business Forum. There is also talk of a Finance Ministers meeting
in Toronto some time before the Summit, perhaps in March. The mainstream
NGOs and major unions are planning a legally permitted demonstration on
April 21, as well as a "People's Summit" that is to take place from April
17-20. The entire week before the Summit is sure to be busy with various
workshops, teach-ins, conferences, protests, marches and actions.


QUEBEC CITY CONSULTA - JANUARY 27-28: Both CLAC and CASA are facilitating
a consulta, or consultation, with like-minded groups and individuals in
Quebec City on the weekend of January 27-28. The purpose of the consulta
is to share information about the Summit, the FTAA and capitalist
globalization, build networks of resistance, discuss action plans, and to
familiarize out-of-towners with Quebec City as well as local groups,
organizers and issues. If you are interested in participating in the
consulta, please send an e-mail saying so to
casa_clac_consulta at hotmail.com.


CARAVANS ANDS VISITS: If you can't come to Quebec City for the consulta,
members of the CLAC can come to you, if that would be useful for your own
local organizing efforts. The CLAC has already organized a caravan to
Ontario, and to cities and towns around Quebec and the Northeast US. These
visits encompassed public presentations, workshops, alternative media
interventions, as well as meetings with local groups. There are two more
caravans planned in February, in collaboration with CASA, for the
Maritimes and the Northeast USA. Visits can also be organized on an ad hoc
basis. If you'd like to organize a visit, or a caravan stop in February in
the Maritimes and USA, please e-mail clac at tao.ca ASAP.


AFFINITY GROUPS: CLAC and CASA are anti-authoritarian groups that are
organizing based on a respect for direct democracy and autonomy.
Therefore, actions and protests in Quebec City and elsewhere will be most
effective if like-minded individuals organize themselves into affinity
groups that share similar perspectives and goals. It is crucial that these
affinity groups be organized well in advance of April to ensure effective
communications, as well as democratic decision-making. If you are part of
an affinity group, don't hesitate to get in touch with the CLAC at
clac at tao.ca


PEOPLES' GLOBAL ACTION (PGA): The CLAC, along with the Tampa Bay Action
Group in Florida, are currently the temporary co-convenors of the Peoples'
Global Action (PGA) network in North America (Canada and the USA). More
info on the PGA network, which is a non-reformist international network
against capitalist globalization, is available at www.agp.org. The North
America network of PGA is not well developed, but there is a potential
North American conference that will be held in the spring. The next
international PGA meeting will take place just after the Summit of the
Americas, in Bolivia between April 27-May 1. For more info about PGA,
contact the CLAC at clac at tao.ca.


OTHER GROUPS?: Clearly, CLAC and CASA are not the only groups organizing
against the Quebec Summit, nor do they claim to embody the resistance
activities against the FTAA. Other groups include OQP2001 (Occupation
Quebec Printemps), which is based in Quebec City and comprised of
representatives of local activist and NGO groups. It is a strictly
regional coalition.  OQP2001, along with CASA, are two groups that will be
responsible for much of the logistical organizing in Quebec City proper.
OQP2001 can be reached by e-mail at info at oqp2001.org. Most NGOs and
mainstream unions will be participating and mobilizing around the People's
Summit, which is a "civil society" conference organized parallel to the
actual Summit of the Americas, and receives a certain amount of government
funding. They are also organizing a legally permitted mass demonstration
during the Summit of the Americas. The Quebec contact for the People's
Summit (which is part of the Hemispheric Social Alliance) is the Reseau
Quebecois sur l'integration continentale (RQIC). They can be reached at
rqic at alternatives.ca. The contact for the People's Summit and the
Hemispheric Social Alliance in the rest of Canada is Common Frontiers --
comfront at web.ca -- that is headquartered in Toronto.  Other mobilizing
groups include Operation SalAMI, student efforts at the University of
Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), McGill and Concordia, and more. All efforts
generally complement each other, and there is so far minimal duplication
of work and focus.


LOGISTICS: There have been many questions about logistical matters next
April, particularly housing, food and transportation. In Quebec City, both
OQP2001 and CASA are the main groups that will facilitate logistics. CLAC
will be collaborating with CASA. It's also worth contacting OQP2001 at
info at oqp2001.org if you have logistical inquiries. From CLAC's end, the
e-mail contacts for the logistics committees are: Housing:
lolicom2001 at hotmail.com; Food: zobule at hotmail.com and
mariec_81 at hotmail.com;  and Transport: steph_est at yahoo.com.


LEGAL: A CLAC legal committee has formed, which aims to provide legal and
jail support on all levels next April and beyond. The e-mail contact is
peter at tao.ca or by phone at the CLAC number at 514-409-2049. There will be
a lot more info forthcoming from this committee in the future.


THE BORDER: There have been many questions from US-based activists about
getting across the border, or alternatively, actions at the border. At
present, the CLAC has no definitive advice to offer, beyond saying that
the border does present a potential, but not insurmountable, problem. As
well, there have been several potential border actions proposed. More info
is forthcoming in the upcoming weeks, including advice about getting
across.


MEDICAL: A medical committee, which aims to provide basic first aid during
actions, as well as trainings for affinity groups, has been formed within
the CLAC. The English-speaking e-mail contact is out of the city until
mid-January, so for now e-mail clac at tao.ca or phone 514-409-2049 for more
info.


COMMITTEE AND WORKING GROUP CONTACTS: It is often more efficient to send
an e-mail along to a contact for the specific working group or committee
you want to reach. For all the contacts below, if you prefer to use the
phone, leave a specific message (identifying the working group or
committee) on the CLAC telephone mailbox at 514-409-2049. Contacts
include:

General Inquiries:  clac at tao.ca
Research Collective: crac at tao.ca
Housing:  lolicom2001 at hotmail.com
Food: zobule at hotmail.com  and   mariec_81 at hotmail.com
Transportation:  steph_est at yahoo.ca
Agitprop: pierreantoineh at yahoo.com
Cultural/Artistic Committee: mattlegrind at hotmail.com and zobule at hotmail.com
Peoples' Global Action: clac at tao.ca
Legal: peter at tao.ca
Medical: clac at tao.ca
External Liaison/Caravans: jaggi at tao.ca
Media: julieeve at hotmail.com
Latin America Contacts/Spanish: crassca at yahoo.ca
Web Page: safechier at yahoo.fr
E-mail Lists: clac at tao.ca
Consulta (January 27-28): casa_clac_consulta at hotmail.com


GETTING MORE INFORMATION: If you want to receive regular e-mail updates
from the CLAC, please send a message to clac at tao.ca with "subscribe CLAC
external updates" in the main text. If you are from the Montreal-area, or
you would like to get the more frequent updates from the various working
groups of the CLAC (predominantly in French, but often translated into
English and Spanish), send a message to clac at tao.ca with "subscribe CLAC
internal updates". If you want to be part of a moderated e-mail list that
shares information about the FTAA, send an e-mail with a blank subject
line to lists at tao.ca with "subscribe ftaa-l" as the main text.


HOW TO HELP AND GET INVOLVED: There are various ways to help or get
involved. If you live in Montreal, or you're planning on visiting
sometime, the CLAC organizes regular general assemblies that are open to
the public (especially people who are in accord with the CLAC basis of
unity). The assemblies (until April) will be held on the evenings of
January 10 and 23, February 7 and 20, March 7, 20 and 28, and April 4 and
11. There is also the Consulta in Quebec City on January 27&28. If your
collective, group or organization agrees with the CLAC principles
(attached below), please endorse them and let us know by e-mail, as we're
trying to amplify the radical anti-capitalist resistance to the FTAA and
capitalist globalization.  If you would like to get involved with helping
a particular CLAC working group or sub-committee (legal, medical,
cultural, etc), please get in touch with them directly (contacts above).
If you want to host a presentation on the FTAA, the Summit of the Americas
or capitalist globalization, get in touch with the external liaison
committee. If you want to be actively involved with organizing against the
FTAA with the CLAC, get involved with one of our working groups, or form
your own affinity group. Whatever you're doing, don't hesitate to get in
touch.


BASIC CONTACT INFORMATION: You can contact the CLAC by e-mail
(clac at tao.ca), phone (514-409-2049), web (http://www.quebec2001.net) or
post (CLAC, c/o La Librairie Alternative, 2035 boulevard St-Laurent, 2nd
floor, Montreal, Quebec, H2X 2T3 CANADA). We can deal with correspondence
in French, English and Spanish.

==========================================


CLAC BASIS OF UNITY (translation from the French)

1. The Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC in French) is opposed to
capitalism. We fundamentally reject a social and economic system based on
the private ownership of the means of production and exchange. We reject a
system driven by an exploitative logic that sees human beings as human
capital, ecosystems as natural resources, and culture as simply a
commodity.  We reject the idea that the world is only valuable in terms of
profit, competition and efficiency.

2. The CLAC also rejects the ideology of neo-liberalism, whereby
corporations and investors are exempt from all political and social
measures that interfere with their so-called "success".

3. The CLAC is anti-imperialist, opposed to patriarchy, and denounces all
forms of exploitation and oppression. We assert a worldview based on the
respect of our differences and the autonomy of groups, individuals and
peoples. Our objective is to globalize our networks of resistance to
corporate rule.

4. Respecting a diversity of tactics, the CLAC supports the use of a
variety of creative initiatives, ranging between public education
campaigns to direct action.

5. The CLAC is autonomous, decentralized and non-hierarchical. We
encourage the involvement of anyone who accepts this statement of
principles. We also encourage the participation of all individuals in
working groups, in accord with their respective political affiliations.

6. With regards to the Summit of the Americas (April 2001) and the
negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the CLAC
adopts a confrontational attitude and rejects reformist alternatives such
as lobbying which cannot have a major impact on anti-democratic processes.
We intend to shut down the Summit of the Americas and to turn the FTAA
negotiations into a non-event.

e-mail: clac at tao.ca
web:    http://www.quebec2001.net
tel:    +1 514 526-8946
post:   la CLAC, c/o la Librairie Alternative
        2035, boulevard St-Laurent, 2nd floor
        Montreal, Quebec, H2X 2T3 CANADA




............................ WHAT IS FTAA?   .........................

Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 12:15:18 -0800
From: Gordon Flett <gflett1 at home.com>
Organization: @Home Network
Subject: (ftaa-l) FTAA: Unveiling NAFTA for the Americas


http://www.tradewatch.org/FTAA/factsheet.htm

 UNVEILING "NAFTA FOR THE AMERICAS"

 NAFTA + WTO = FTAA

 What is "FTAA"?

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is the formal name given to an
expansion of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) that would
include nearly all of the countries in the western hemisphere. This
massive NAFTA expansion is currently being negotiated in secret by trade
ministers from a total of 34 nations in North, Central and South America
and the Caribbean. The goal of the FTAA is to impose the failed NAFTA
model of increased privatization and deregulation hemisphere-wide.
Imposition of these rules would empower corporations to constrain
governments from setting standards for public health and safety, to
safeguard their workers, and to ensure corporations do not pollute the
communities in which they operate. Effectively, these rules would handcuff
governments' public interest policymaking and enhance corporate control at
the expense of citizens throughout the Americas. FTAA would deepen the
negative effects of NAFTA we've seen in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. over
the past seven years and expand NAFTA's damage to the other 31 countries
involved. The FTAA would intensify NAFTA's "race to the bottom": under
FTAA, exploited workers in Mexico could be leveraged against even more
desperate workers in Haiti, Guatemala or Brazil by companies seeking
tariff-free access back into U.S. markets.


A quick look at NAFTA's legacy reveals disastrous consequences:

An estimated 395,000 U.S. jobs have been lost since NAFTA as companies
relocated to Mexico to take advantage of the weaker labor standards. These
workers usually find jobs with less security and wages that are about 77%
of what they originally had.

The U.S. trade surplus with Mexico has become a deficit for the first
time. Despite promises of increased economic development throughout
Mexico, only the border region has seen intensified industrial activity.
Yet even this small "gain" has not brought prosperity. Over one million
more Mexicans work for less than the minimum wage of $3.40 per day today
than before NAFTA, and during the NAFTA period, eight million Mexicans
have fallen from the middle class into poverty.

In addition, the increase of border industry has created worsening
environmental and public health threats in the area. Every day, 44 tons of
hazardous waste are disposed of improperly. In this time, birth defects
have increased dramatically. In the first year of NAFTA in one Texas
border county, 15 babies were born without brains - an unprecedented 36%
increase from the year before! Along the border, the occurrence of some
diseases, including hepatitis, is two or three times the national average,
due to lack of sewage treatment and safe drinking water.

Although it's hard to imagine that anyone would push for more of a failed
model like this, what little we do know about FTAA is that is likely to
look quite a bit like NAFTA. In fact, some FTAA texts are reported to be
literally based on NAFTA, with additional countries added in. We know what
results to expect!


Who is involved in the FTAA negotiations, and how did it get started?

High on their NAFTA victory, U.S. officials organized a Summit of the
Americas in Miami in December 1994. Trade ministers from every country in
the western hemisphere (except for Cuba) agreed to launch negotiations to
establish a hemispheric free trade deal. After the "Miami Summit,"
however, little more was done on FTAA until the "Santiago Summit" in Chile
in April 1998. However, at this second summit the 34 nations set up a
Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), consisting of vice ministers of trade
from every country and headed by Dr. Adalberto Rodriguez Giavarini of
Argentina. Negotiators also agreed on a structure of nine working groups
to deal with the major areas they agreed to cover under FTAA: agriculture,
services, investment, dispute settlement, intellectual property rights,
subsidies and anti-dumping, competition policy, government procurement and
market access. You would never know it from news reports, but since late
1999, the working groups have been meeting every few months to lay out
their countries' positions on these issues and try to develop treaty
language.

As with the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), many Members of
Congress have no idea this is even going on. Congress has set no goals for
the U.S.'s participation in these talks and has not delegated to the
Executive branch its Constitutional role of setting the terms of
international commerce. However, a variety of corporate committees do
advise the U.S. negotiators; under the trade advisory committee system,
over 500 corporate representatives have security clearance and access to
FTAA NAFTA expansion documents. Organizations such as the Organization of
American States (OAS), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the UN
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),
collectively known as the "Tripartite Committee," also provide direction.
Early on, non-governmental civil society organizations (NGOs) demanded
working groups on democratic governance, labor and human rights, consumer
safety and the environment. These were rejected, and instead a Committee
of Government Representatives on Civil Society was established to
represent the views of civil society to the TNC. Yet this committee is
little more than a mail in-box. It has no mechanism to incorporate civil
society concerns and suggestions into the actual negotiations, so these
are mainly ignored.

The U.S. is represented by the U.S. Trade Representative's office (USTR),
headed by Charlene Barshefsky as of November 2000. The lead USTR
negotiator on FTAA is Peter Allgeier.


What will FTAA's practical effects be?

Because negotiations are occurring in secret and no texts have been made
publicly available, we cannot know the details of the draft text. However,
our conversations with the USTR have given us some clues about what to
expect once a final agreement is unveiled - in other words, once it's too
late to change it!


Essential Social Services Endangered:

The FTAA will contain a series of commitments to "liberalize" services,
which is much like the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
within the WTO. "Services" is a broad category that includes education,
health care, environmental services (which can include access to water!),
energy, postal services and anything else we pay for that isn't a physical
object. Possible effects of the FTAA services agreement include:

Removal of national licensing standards for medical, legal and other key
professionals, allowing doctors licensed in one country to practice in any
country, even if their level of training or technological sophistication
is different; privatization of public schools and prisons in the U.S.,
opening the door to greater corporate control, corruption and the
temptation to cut critical corners (such as medical care for inmates or
upkeep of safe school facilities) in the interests of improving profit
margins; and privatization of postal services transferring U.S. Postal
Service functions to a few delivery companies like FedEx, which could then
send postal rates through the roof.


Investment and a Backdoor MAI:

 FTAA NAFTA expansion provides a potential "back door" for the
Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), through negotiations focused
on investments and in the financial services sector.  We didn't call the
MAI "NAFTA on steroids" for nothing! MAI is based on NAFTA and direct
NAFTA expansion is just another way to impose these rules.  Like in
NAFTA's Chapter 11, the USTR says that FTAA will include
"investor-to-state" suits. These allow corporations to sue governments
directly for the removal of standards or laws designed to protect public
health and safety, which may cost the corporations a little more in
operating costs. In other words, the FTAA would provide a hemispheric
"regulatory takings" clause that explicitly values corporate profits over
human costs. NAFTA cases that set a likely precedent for FTAA actions
under this provision include:

The Canadian funeral home chain Loewen Group used NAFTA investor
protections to sue the U.S. government for $750 million in cash damages
after a Mississippi court found Loewen guilty of malicious and fraudulent
practices that unfairly targeted a local small business. (NAFTA permits
companies to sue governments over rulings or regulations that may
potentially limit their profits.) Loewen argues that the very existence of
the state court system violates its NAFTA rights.

The U.S.-based Ethyl Corporation forced Canada to pay $13 million in
damages and drop its ban on the dangerous gasoline additive MMT, a known
toxin that attacks the human nervous system. Other regulations protecting
public health and the environment remain open for attack under NAFTA and
FTAA.

In a similar case, U.S.-based Metalclad Corp. sued a Mexican state to
allow a toxic waste disposal site, claiming that the environmental zoning
law forbidding the dump constituted an effective seizure of the company's
property ­ a seizure that, under the property rights extended by NAFTA
(and to be perpetuated in FTAA), requires that the offending government
compensate the company.


Food, Agriculture & GMOs:

The U.S. is trying to force all countries to accept biotechnology and
genetically modified (GM) foods in which unregulated U.S.-based
corporations have taken a lead. Yet food security organizations all over
the world agree that these technologies will increase hunger in poor
nations. Being forced to buy expensive patented seeds every season, rather
than saving and planting their own, will force traditional subsistence
farmers in the developing world into dependency on transnational
corporations and closer to the brink of starvation. If the U.S. position
wins out, FTAA will promote the interests of biotech and agribusiness
giants like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Cargill and Monsanto over the
interests of hungry people in developing nations.


Intellectual Property Rights (IPR):

The U.S. is trying to expand NAFTA's corporate protectionism rules on
patents to the whole hemisphere. These rules give a company with a patent
in one country the monopoly marketing rights to the item throughout the
region. These rules are enforced with cash fines and criminal penalties,
making these rules even harsher than the WTO IPR rules. These rules have
been used as justification for pharmaceutical companies to quash
compulsory licensing mechanisms to allow competitor companies to
manufacture a drug in exchange for a fee for "renting" the patent. This
monopoly control allows pharmaceutical corporations to keep drug prices
high and block production of generic versions of life-saving drugs, which
spells disaster for the ill and impoverished, especially in developing
nations.

These rules also allow companies to "bioprospect" and lock down patents
for traditional medicines that are considered "traditional knowledge,"
effectively robbing indigenous people of their cultural heritage to fatten
corporate wallets.


What is the current status of the FTAA negotiations?

All the negotiating groups have held meetings at two to three month
intervals throughout 2000. Negotiators have laid out the positions of
their governments on the nine core issues. As of fall 2000, they are in
the process of consolidating proposed text to find points of agreement
among the governments. A complete "bracketed" (draft) text will be ready
in December 2000. Vice ministerial level meetings on FTAA NAFTA expansion
will begin in early 2001.

The next ministerial-level Summit of the Americas is planned for Quebec
City, Canada on April 20-22, 2001, at which negotiators will start
building a whole text.

The agreement is to be complete and implemented in 2005.



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resisting the FTAA and capitalist globalization
mobilizing for Quebec City, April 2001
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