Harry, But, they shouldn't be published as independent authorities on the subject.
arthur Is there *anyone* who is an "independent" authority on this subject (or any other contentious policy subject)?? -----Original Message----- From: Harry Pollard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2004 4:25 AM To: 'Darryl and Natalia'; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Futurework] FWD: NAFTA: North American Deal Dismal After aDecade Daryll, Wallach is with Public Citizen - a Nader group as you know. They are tied to the protectionist unions who are against free trade for fear it will affect their cushy jobs and pensions. The fact that protectionism will raise prices to the other 280 million Americans is not their concern. They are for themselves - which they have a perfect right to be. But, they shouldn't be published as independent authorities on the subject. Harry ******************************************** Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: 818 352-4141 -- Fax: 818 353-2242 http://haledward.home.comcast.net ******************************************** -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darryl and Natalia Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 10:38 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Futurework] FWD: NAFTA: North American Deal Dismal After aDecade Thanks for the stat's. Darryl ----- Original Message ----- From: mcandreb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 2:05 PM Subject: [Futurework] FWD: NAFTA: North American Deal Dismal After a Decade > > Anybody surprised? And ten years from now? I'm with Michael Gurstein on > this New Years' prediction. > > Brian McAndrews > > ----------------------------------- > > > > > Published on Saturday, December 27, 2003 by the Inter Press Service > NAFTA: North American Deal Dismal After a Decade > by Emad Mekay > > WASHINGTON - After 10 years a deal that all sides say transformed trade > and investment rules in North America has still produced far fewer > positive results than originally promised, according to its critics. > > "Had they (original promises) come true, NAFTA would have been an > enormous boom and we would all be cracking champagne," said Lori > Wallach, director of the global trade watch program at Washington-based > Public Citizen, a consumer rights group. > > "But instead we have got the 10-year record and it's pretty damn grim." > > When NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) was being sold to > the U.S. Congress and the public in Canada, Mexico and the United States > in the early 1990s, its promoters promised the deal would create > hundreds of thousands of high-wage U.S. jobs, raise living standards in > all three countries and improve environmental conditions and transform > Mexico from a poor developing country into a booming economy. > > But NAFTA's real-life damage to jobs, wages and the environment after 10 > years has made many people in North America furious about the trade > policies the deal was built upon (policies that provide the foundation > for subsequent agreements such as the forthcoming Free Trade Area of the > Americas, FTAA). > > "NAFTA's 10-year record demonstrates that under the NAFTA model most > people in the three countries were losers, while only a few of the > largest corporations who helped write NAFTA were the major winners," > Wallach said. > > Thanks to the deal, which celebrates its anniversary Jan. 1, major > companies -- like auto makers General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- can > set up shop in Mexico, employ cheap labor in that country and then > export the finished products to Canada and the United States. > > NAFTA rules also limit each country's domestic policies to deal with > issues ranging from environmental health and food safety to banking and > truck safety regulation. > > Under the unprecedented investor rights sewn into the deal, investors > are allowed to demand compensation for "indirect expropriation", which > has been interpreted to mean any government act -- including those > directed at public health and the environment -- that diminishes the > value of a foreign investment. > > Following one such suit, the Mexican government was ordered in August > 2000 to pay nearly 17 million dollars to a California firm that was > denied a permit from a Mexican municipality to operate a hazardous waste > treatment facility in an environmentally sensitive location. > > U.S. workers were promised 170,000 additional jobs in each of NAFTA's > first 10 years, based on the deal increasing the trade surplus with > Mexico and lowering the pre-NAFTA trade deficit with Canada. > > But instead of the surplus, the United States now runs an average > 37-billion-dollar annual deficit with Mexico, and has lost close to > three million manufacturing jobs. > > Under one government program for displaced workers, the NAFTA Trade > Adjustment System -- for which only a relatively small number of the > deal's potential victims could qualify -- 525,000 U.S. workers were > certified as NAFTA casualties because their jobs were transferred to > Mexico. > > According to Public Citizen, despite the economic growth of the 1990s, > U.S. real wages are still below 1972 levels, while income inequality has > skyrocketed because of the shift from manufacturing jobs to employment > in services, where wages are far less. > > According to the Institute of Policy Studies, NAFTA has also had a > detrimental impact on the ability of U.S. workers to fight for better > wages and working conditions. U.S. employers now often threaten to move > to Mexico and other low-wage countries in order to fight unions and > restrain wages. > > The use of such threats in union organizing drives increased from about > 50 percent in the early 1990s to 62 percent in 1998 and 68 percent in > 1999, says the Washington-based institute. > > The U.S. government points to different figures to buttress its pro > free-trade arguments. According to data from the U.S. Trade > Representative office, total trade among the NAFTA countries more than > doubled between 1993 and 2002. > > It says foreign direct investment by NAFTA partners in the three > countries jumped from 136.9 billion dollars in 1993 to 299.2 billion > dollars in 2000. > > Last week, the World Bank also said NAFTA was, overall, a positive deal, > especially for Mexico. For example, it triggered productivity growth, as > the country needed only about one-half the time to adopt foreign > technology during the span of the deal than it did before. > > But according to a recent report by the Global Resource Action Center > for the Environment (GRACE), NAFTA has displaced 1.75 million Mexican > farmers from their land, forcing them to migrate to the cities or the > United States. > > According to Lauren Carlsen, director of the Americas program of the > Inter-hemispheric Resource Center, an advocacy group based in Mexico > City, farm prices -- especially for maize -- have plummeted during the > deal's lifetime in the face of heftily subsidized imports from the > United States. > > Incomes in Mexico have also nose-dived. According to the Center for > Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, in 10 years income > per person has grown by only nine percent in Mexico, about one-fifth of > the growth in the 1960s and 1970s. > > "No economist can honestly call that a success," said Mark Weisbrot > co-director of the CEPR. > > NAFTA was also promoted as a route to good jobs and improved living > conditions, especially via maquiladoras, companies that are permitted to > operate duty-free in nations that provide them with cheap labor -- in > the NAFTA case, U.S. firms setting up in Mexico. > > "Instead, we got low wages, sexual harassment, environmental destruction > and birth defects," said Marth Ojeda, director of the Coalition for > Justice in the Maquiladoras, herself a maquiladora worker. > > "Most maquiladora workers are very young, between 16 and 25, because > their eyes, backs and hands haven't given out yet -- their hours are so > long that their youth passes without seeing the sun," added Ojeda. > > Workers and government services in Canada, the third NAFTA partner, did > not fare any better. > > Canada's former prime minister Brian Mulroney called the deal a "cold > shower" at its inception, something the country needed to go from a > so-called welfare state to one primed to compete in the international > sphere. > > But 10 years later, many critics say the business community has actually > exploited the deal to push for cuts in social programs, arguing they > were necessary to compete with the lower costs faced by U.S. businesses, > operating in a nation with generally lower levels of worker protection. > > The clearest example of that, critics say, is the impact is the scaling > back of Canada's unemployment insurance. > > According to the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, the percentage > of unemployed workers who qualified for this scheme (now known as > "employment insurance") dropped from 87 percent in 1989 to only 39 > percent in 2001. > > "We have lowered social spending so much that we have moved from being > first in the world in the United Nations human development index to > number eight last year," said Maude Barlow, chairperson of the Council > of Canadians, the country's largest public advocacy organization. > > "And three target groups have been hit the worst: the unemployed, > low-income earners and the elderly," she added. "It's pretty well time > we stopped thinking that we are a kinder and gentler nation." > > If there is one major lesson of NAFTA that many analysts from all three > countries agree on, says the Institute of Policy Studies, it is that > "there is no guaranteed link between trade and investment liberalization > and improvements for workers or the environment". > > 2003 © IPS --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.557 / Virus Database: 349 - Release Date: 12/30/2003 _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
