Free Trade: GATT / WTO / NAFTA / TIMLA / SPP and Corporate Dominance
May 18, 2007
These free trade agreements, in order to be effectively understood, must be examined,
not in isolation, but as part of the same ongoing, incremental process.
GATT
The 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was the first in an ever
expanding number of free trade agreements that represents a start of the process
by which the rights of local communities and governments to regulate the conduct
of corporations have been slowly eroded over time.
The Multinational
Monitor on GATT:
"The GATT was a narrowly-cast 20-page trade pact created after World War II to set
tariff rates and quota levels for trade in goods between countries. Countries met
several times a decade for a “round” of GATT negotiations during which they agreed
to cut tariffs or quotas further. In the United States and some other nations, these
new tariff and quota terms would then be brought to legislative bodies for approval.
However, because the narrowly construed GATT and the notion of free trade generally
enjoyed broad support, these votes in the U.S. Congress were not controversial."
WTO / NAFTA
From a fairly narrow agreement, we progress to the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) in 1994 and then the World Trade Organization (WTO), established during
the Uraguay round of GATT negotiations in 1995.
Both agreements are two sides of the same coin and are nothing less than a deregulatory agenda
to compromise food safety, environmental and other public interest protections by
labeling them “illegal trade barriers” that must be eliminated.
They completely
undermine the ability of local authorities to act in their best interests and essentially
hand over power in all areas to corporations. Let's remember, corporations only
have one objective - profit - and will never act in the interest of any local community
or country. If their actions destroy you or your community, too bad for you (more
likely so what and who cares from their sociopathic perspective).
Of course, NAFTA
is actually worse than the WTO.
The Multinational
Monitor on NAFTA:
"The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) includes an array of new corporate investment rights and protections that are unprecedented in scope and power.
NAFTA allows corporations to sue the national government of a NAFTA country in secret arbitration tribunals if they feel that a regulation or government decision affects their investment in conflict with these new NAFTA rights. If a corporation wins, the taxpayers of the "losing" NAFTA nation must foot the bill. This extraordinary attack on governments' ability to regulate in the public interest is a key element of the proposed NAFTA expansion called the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)."
And sue they have...here are a number of examples of this:
"In one case, the government of Mexico paid Metalclad, a U.S. toxic waste company,
$16 million in damages after a NAFTA tribunal ruled that a Mexican municipality’s
refusal to grant a construction permit for a toxic waste treatment facility in an
environmentally sensitive area violated Metalclad’s NAFTA investor rights."
"In another case, Canada paid the U.S. corporation Ethyl $12 million in compensation
and reversed a ban on a toxic gasoline additive called MMT after Ethyl filed a NAFTA
challenge."
"Not even international environmental and human rights treaties are free from these
attacks: in another case, a U.S. corporation called S.D. Meyers received millions
in compensation after a NAFTA tribunal ruled that Canada’s implementation of the
Basel Convention, an international treaty on the handling of toxic waste, had limited
S.D. Meyer’s business opportunities in PCB toxic waste disposal trade."
The list goes on and on.
TIMLA
The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TIMLA) between the governments
of BC and Alberta that came into effect in April of 2007, is an extension of this
ever expanding array of corporate rights. And you guessed it, this agreement goes
even further than NAFTA in terms of corporate rights. What a surprise.
The Canadian
Action Party letter on TIMLA:
"TILMA is a super investment agreement of greater scope than the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in that at it allows no government obstacles (Article
3) that would impair or restrict trade, or investment, or labour mobility between
the Parties. In addition to the provinces, it covers municipalities, Crown corporations,
school boards , universities, and private agencies on contract with government."
"This means you will not be able to regulate on any matter as all regulations can
be seen as in some way affecting investment leaving your municipality subject
to the maximum penalty of $5 million for each investor who chooses to sue you
even on the same issue over and over again."
"Such matters as your efforts to conserve heritage sites, promote small business
or neighborhood development, or bans on municipal billboards, rules about density,
scenic views, building height limitations, tree bylaws, or any issues re quality
of neighborhood life will be impacted."
This represents the extension of the trend we see on the international stage to
the provincial and local level. Corporations good, communities bad.
SPP
The process has continued with the Security and Prosperity Agreement of North America
(SPP), signed in March 2005, which effectively ended the sovereignty of Canada,
the United States and Mexico. This agreement was negotiated in secret without public
debate or parliamentary authority and established an unelected, unaccountable, supranational
body run by the corporations that is currently rapidly integrating the three nations.
This is an integration by stealth agenda that mirrors exactly how the European Union
was created.
In 2030, we will be witnessing the 25th anniversary of the North American Union.
And nobody will show up, just as no one showed up to celebrate the 50th anniversay
of the European Union in 2006.
Where Will It End
It will never end. The process will continue unabated until the corporations and
their government servants gain control over all aspects of our lives and establish
a permanent corporate controlled oligarchy.
Welcome to One World Government - like it or else!
Links
Slow Motion Coup d'Etat: Global Trade Agreements and the Displacement of Democracy
The American Empire: Conquest Through NAFTA
TIMLA website
SPP website