F.T.A.A.

Free Trade Area of the

Americas

Nicole Anello
Kara Breissinger
Neena Dreslin
Nicholas Lee
 NAFTA- Objectives
 Reduce trade barriers between parties
 Promote conditions of fair competition
 Increase investment opportunities
 Protection of intellectual property
rights
 Overall, to benefit all members
through increased and fairer trade
practices
 NAFTA
 PROS  CONS
 Created jobs in  Pollution at the
Mexico Mexican border
 Very low wages
 Increased trade
 Poor labor
between all
partners standards in
Mexico
 Reduced tariffs
 U.S. jobs lost
and non-tariff
barriers
 Objectives vs. Reality
 U.S. companies  The low cost labor
want to take is preventing
advantage of low Mexicans from
cost labor improving their
standard of living
 They want to get  No unions=unfair
away from unions working conditions
 Hoped to build  Crime is increasing,
lucrative markets in native work force is
Northern Mexico being exhausted
 What is going on today??
 The facts show that Mexico has been
harmed in many ways
 U.S. blue-collar jobs have decreased
on the whole
 The net impact of immigration should
be that it will decrease
 Cultural identity is being lost
Sweatshops & Human Rights
 Proponents of NAFTA Push:
 More Jobs (US, Mexico, and Canada)
 Higher Wages

 Better Deals on Goods and Services

 Effects
 US workers lost hundreds of thousands of
jobs
 Mexican workers encountered low wages
and unfair labor practices
Claim Against Washington State
Apple Industry
 Failure of US Labor Law to Protect
Workers’ Rights
 Inadequacy and Failure of US Labor Law
 Mary Mendez (worked 7 years in apple
industry)
 Difficulty Forming Union (armed guards)
 Threatened with Immigration

 Unfair Wage Reductions if in Union

 Anti-union Propaganda and Threats

 In Addition…
 Illegal Chemical Hazards
 Fired and Overworked Injured People
 “Anglos” had lighter jobs and are
better paid
 May take up to two years for Labor Law
Violations to Reach Arbitration
 Chapter 11
 Purpose
 To ensure that US investors abroad receive
the same type of protection that foreign
investors get in the US with or without a
treaty
 Reality
 May lead to a fundamentally different
world in the degree of power corporations
hold on democratic governments
-Dan Seligman, Director of the Sierra Club’s
Trading Program
 Chapter 11 in Practice
 California Case: Methanex v. the US
 Methanex, a Canadian Company
 Produces Gasoline Additive MTBE
 Caused cancer in lab animals

 Gov. Gray Davis authorized its phase out

 Filed a suit for $970 million in compensation

 Behind closed doors

 Questions our own sovereignty

 Is it our decision or an un-elected body’s
decision?
 NAFTA denies tribunals the power to overrule
state law
 History of the FTAA
Free Trade Area of the Americas

 First Summit of the Americas: Miami, 1994

 34 heads of state
 addressed common issues and sought solutions to
shared problems
 Declaration of Principles
 defined the goals of the FTAA
 12 working groups established
 negotiate for the FTAA
 lead to a committed initiation of FTAA
negotiations in 1998
What Does it Mean for the US in the
future?

 Possible free trade with all countries of

North, Central, and South America
 Increased competition and standards
for US made goods and services
 Further integration; similar to the
modern day European Union
 Creation of a single currency and
common market
 General Objectives
 To promote prosperity through
increased economic integration and
free trade among the countries of our
hemisphere.
 To establish a Free Trade Area,
concluding negotiations by 2005.
 To maximize market openness through
high levels of disciplines.
 General Objectives
 To provide opportunities to facilitate
the integration of the smaller
economies in the FTAA.
 To strive to make our trade
liberalization and environmental
policies mutually supportive.
 To secure observance and promotion of
workers rights.
 PROS & CONS
 Free trade region  Congress not
involved
 Benefits of further
integration  NGOs denied
participation
 Increased  Extreme power
competition given to
 Promote prosperity corporations
 “Deepen negative
effects of NAFTA”
 Possible Negative Effects
 Ability of corporations to bypass
environmental and worker protection
laws
 Services will be liberalized
 Exacerbation of environmental
destruction
 Negative expansion of IPR
 Increase use of GMOs
 Human Rights
 Largest fear
 FTAA
values corporate profits over
human costs
 increase of poverty and inequality
QUESTIONS?