------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 26 May 1999 17:03:20 -0700
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: S.O.S.: MAI AND WTO PREPARATIONS ADVANCE IN MEXICO AND OTHER
COUNTRIES.
Date: Tue, 25 May 1999
From: "Margrete Strand-Rangnes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: (mai) S.O.S. : MAI AND WTO PREPARATIONS ADVANCE IN MEXICO
-- forwarded message, for more information contact "Red Mexicana de Accion
frente al Libre comercio, A.C." [EMAIL PROTECTED] --
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S.O.S., S.O.S. : MAI AND WTO PREPARATIONS ADVANCE IN MEXICO AND OTHER
COUNTRIES.
The recent ratification by the European Parliament (6 May, 1999) of the
Global Agreement on Free Trade, Political Partnership and Co-operation
between the countries of the European Union and Mexico, and its appended
Agreement on Trade and matters related to trade (the Interim Agreement),
containing as they do a clone of the MAI and the themes of the next WTO,
mean an advance fro the corporate finance and trade agenda.
These agreements were passed without transparency and with a lack of
information to the public in European and in Mexico. They were denounced by
the coalition of organisations known as "Mexican Citizens on the European
Union," by a range of international human rights, labour, environmental,
and human rights organisations (International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions, International Federation of Human Rights, NGOs-Liaison to the
European Community, and the European Environmental Bureau). These are trade
and finance agreements that lack obligatory mechanisms to guarantee respect
for labour rights, human rights, rights of indigenous people, social rights
and environmental standards. They include the central issues of the MAI,
contents of NAFTA, and the themes of liberalisation of agriculture,
forestry, intellectual property rights and governmental procurement that
may be negotiated in the framework of the WTO.
This model of a Free Trade Agreement (a "NAFTA with the EU"), dressed up
with a "democracy clause" which with rhetoric says it seeks to defend human
rights and democracy, is the proposal that the European Union corporations
may present to Latin American heads of state in the "First Latin America
European Co-operation Summit," to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the
end of June. It likely embraces the fundamental aspects of what the Council
of the European Union would present as well to the African, Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) nations which are part of the LomT Agreement.
The European Union-Mexico agreement, ratified to date by the parliaments of
at least eight EU member countries, is not known by many citizens’
organisations or even parliamentarians. It includes guarantees for the
liberalisation of the flows of capital (including speculative flows),
guarantees against nationalisation, and external dispute resolution
tribunals ; in other words, it provides extreme guarantees to capital and
obligations to states. It contains as well liberalisation measures for
markets in agriculture, forestry, government procurement, and intellectual
property rights that go beyond the commitments achieved in the Uruguay
round and the WTO.
The evident dangers which hundreds of civil organisations have denounced
with respect to the MAI and the Millennium, Round are being filtered
beneath the door in two ways: the bilateral agreements on trade and
investment such as this Mexico-European Union Agreement, as well as through
Bilateral Investment Agreements (on promotion and reciprocal protection of
investments). We must denounce them before they are expanded to all of
Latin America and the ACP countries.
Mexican civil organisations launch a global alert to call on our civil
counterpart organisations to put a stop to these actions that our
governments are taking against the interests of our peoples.
1. We propose that, together with reinforcing the global actions against
the MAI and the Millennium Round, we show our opposition to these kinds of
bilateral agreements which are preparing the way for the corporate agenda
from our countries and in the name of our own interests. We seek to
strengthen such actions as those in favour of the ATTAC proposal that we
support as well.
2. We call on all civil organisations, and especially our European
counterparts, to send letters to their parliamentarians indicating their
concern with respect to this agreement, and in the cases of those
parliaments that have not yet ratified the agreement, ask that they not
ratify it. In the same way, we ask that the letters be sent with copies of
documents by such organisations as the International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions, International Federation of Human Rights, NGOs-Liaison to the
European Community, and the European Environmental Bureau.
3. We ask that all European organisations demand transparency from their
governments and parliamentarians, as well as precise information about the
negotiations which are being conducted with the countries of Latin America
and the ACP, along with public discussion about their contents.
Signed :
Mexican Citizens on the European Union (Ciudadan@s de MTxico ante la Uni=n
Europea.)
May 1999
**********************************
Margrete Strand Rangnes
MAI Project Coordinator
Public Citizen Global Trade Watch
215 Pennsylvania Ave, SE
Washington DC, 20003 USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
202-546 4996, ext. 306
202-547 7392 (fax)
[PEN-L:7316] (Fwd) S.O.S.: MAI AND WTO PREPARATIONS ADVANCE IN MEXICO AND O
ts99u-1.cc.umanitoba.ca [130.179.154.224] Thu, 27 May 1999 11:51:56 -0500
