Vineland Revisited

[Judy]

Here are some additional thoughts re: Mexico and the impact of NAFTA:
 
> It's about corporate wealth, stupid
> by Dalton Camp
> 
> These days we are being bombarded by essays,
> editorials, columns and voicespeak assuring us
> that free trade is the miracle analgesic of our
> time, promising prosperity for all, inviting us to
> take a number and be patient. There is hardly a
> retired foreign service boffin who has not been
> heard to offer calming reassurance and to scold
> the deranged protesters.
> 
> The Prime Minister, speaking of the protesters,
> has characterized their contrary views as "blah,
> blah, blah." My morning paper, the national
> edition, is making a heroic effort to explain the
> economic wonders of globalization, the road to
> which is being paved by FTA, NAFTA, FTAA and the
> eager multinationals. In its latest peroration, my
> morning paper declared: "Mexico has toughened its
> environmental regulations since Canada and the
> United States and Mexico formed the free-trade
> zone in 1994." Well, I'm far from expert in these
> matters. But I did once travel through Texas on a
> train, and I have a little "blah, blah, blah" to
> add to the blessings free trade is trying to bring
> to the Mexican environment.
> 
> South of the border, down Mexico way, in a small
> town in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, a
> California firm - Metalclad - a commercial
> purveyor of hazardous wastes, bought an abandoned
> dump site nearby. It proposed to expand on the
> dumpsite and to haul toxic waste material and
> other hazardous stuff and dump it in San Luis
> Potosi. The people in the neighbourhood of the
> dump site protested. The municipality, using
> powers delegated to it by the state, rezoned the
> site and forbid Metalclad to extend its land holdi
> ngs.
> 
> Concerned about the potential hazards of the
> reopened dump to the local water supply, the state
> conducted an environmental impact study. As a
> result, it rezoned the property and forbid any
> extension of Metalclad's land holdings.
> 
> Metalclad, under Chapter 11 of the NAFTA, then
> sued the Mexican government for damage to its
> profit margins and balance sheet as a result of
> being treated unequally by the people of San Luis
> Potosi. A trade panel, convened in Washington,
> agreed with the company. The Mexican government
> has since appealed, and, if I may add a little
> more "blah, blah, blah," good luck to them.
> 
> There is no better example for the rising public
> anger, concern and unease over globalization, free
> trade, and over the NAFTA, than the illustration
> provided in the matter of Metalclad vs. the people
> of Mexico, and beyond. Nothing has done greater
> damage to the environment, potable water and to
> public health than the devastating combination of
> new industrial border towns and dirt cheap Mexican
> labour. Globalization's apologists say this is
> about "development." There is overwhelming
> evidence it is really about exploitation of the
> poor and the powerless.
> 
> In the small town in San Luis Potosi, there was
> once a dump. Then there was no dump. NAFTA (which
> includes us) says there has to be a dump, whether
> the people in the community want a dump, whether
> the municipality wants a dump or the state wants a
> dump; NAFTA says you gotta have a dump. Is the
> Prime Minister really puzzled about the fact that
> a lot of people who haven't read the treaty, and
> had never heard of Chapter 11 until yesterday, are
> saying that if this is what free trade is about,
> then it's nothing they want to root for, believe
> in, or, for that matter, vote for. In fact, to
> answer our own question: In truth, the government
> of Canada is madly lukewarm about Chapter 11.
> 
> The Americans are devoted to the doctrine of equal
> treatment; it's an NRA, John Wayne, James Madison,
> General Dynamics, Bill Gates, Knute Rockne,
> General Motors kind of thing: If it's not part of
> the constitution, it should be (as it applies to
> business and good corporate health).
> 
> The political establishment knows Canada's
> society, its health- care system, even its
> parliamentary democracy, are endangered by Chapter
> 11. (After Ethyl corporation sued when the
> government banned its gasoline additive as a
> health hazard, the government settled "out of
> court" to prevent a public spectacle of a
> corporation overruling the nation's Parliament.)
> The hard truth is this: Chapter 11 was not
> enshrined in the NAFTA in order to make a better
> world for the people of Canada, any more than for
> the people of San Luis Potosi but, instead, for
> the corporate folk who own the newspapers,
> magazines and the electronic media, as well as
> many of the politicans, along with a few
> economists. All are now on parade in full marching
> regalia, and in full voice, singing for their
> supper and for a Chapter 11 for all people of all
> nations.
> 
> Dalton Camp is a political commentator.
> 
> 
> 
>