NAFTA is an unfair trade dictum of over 1,000 pages which opened the way for privatization of nearly every public service. It has created an unequal distribution of income and power placing even more of each into wealthy corporate coffers. NAFTA has enabled corporations to: move wealth offshore, avoid taxes, evade environmental laws, extort subsidies from desperate communities, pay subsistence wages while extracting rich natural resources and selling their manufactured products via any market, anywhere in the world.

NAFTA, CAFTA, and GATT codified corporate globalization. Developing countries can only obtain loans if they agree to the policies under these trade dictates. World banking and trade rules are designed for corporations by corporate lawyers. Labor leaders are essentially excluded from negotiating agreements. Labor, environmental, food and medical standards all are set according to the least common denominator found in any country under these trade agreements. Wages in all countries have fallen; low-pay jobs have increased as better paying jobs have decreased. Manufacturing and textile plants have been relocated and high tech jobs here have been outsourced, costing taxpayers $7 billion a year.

The people of Mexico, suffering under an economy ravished by unfair trade agreements, are forced to put their lives in danger crossing armed borders to seek jobs. Most Mexican farms are small and cannot compete with imported cheaper GMO foods from the USA. Corporate capital flows freely around the globe and the people must follow. People from all parts of the world face an immigration process that allows them entrance only if they possess special skills needed and will assimilate.

Progressive people must organize to replace NAFTA and all unfair trade accords. We need cross-border agreements based on human needs, providing worker and environmental protections and an equitable distribution of all resources.

See NAFTA, "A Death Sentence for the Indigenous People of Mexico."

(back to June 2006 Newsletter front page)