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OUR GENERAL
ASSEMBLY WAS "ON ITS TOES" IN OPPOSING THE FTAA
By
Jo Williams, from Presbyterians for Restoring Creation's Nov.
15, 2003 'PRC Update'
Did you
know that our 215th General Assembly passed a resolution in
opposition to the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA) this
past May? It is vital for every member of PRESBYTERIANS FOR
RESTORING CREATION to be alerted about the dangers inherent
in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in the World
Trade Organization (WTO), as well as in the expansion of NAFTA
into the FTAA. Once we are alerted, we can then begin to educate
the rest of the Church. If the "Presbyterian in the Pew"
becomes knowledgeable about these trade agreements, this resolution
against the FTAA might become the most important resolution
passed at General Assembly this year.
The resolution
is both cogent and incisive. You can read it [here
or] in the July/August issue of Church and Society issue, The
Social Justice Actions of the 215th General Assembly 2003. Bolivia,
the Joining Hands Against Hunger partner of the Presbytery of
San Francisco, asked the Presbytery to oppose further trade
agreements that deepen Bolivia's poverty and negate their ability
for self-determination. Ironically, these same trade agreements
seem to deepen our country's poverty and negate our ability
for self-determination, as well.
While masquerading
under the name of "free" trade agreements, these agreements
are free only for multinational corporations! NAFTA, enacted
in 1993, the WTO, enacted in 1995 and now FTAA, due to be enacted
in 2005, create amazing privileges and protections for multinational
corporations while containing only constraints and obligations
for local, state and national governments. One of its unbelievable
rules allows corporations to sue governments when environmental
or public health laws negatively impact expected corporate profits!
Now we understand
why these agreements have been negotiated in secret and why
labor, human rights and environmental groups were not allowed
at the negotiating table. The trade representatives, with input
only from the corporations, were devising rules that would enable
companies to bypass or eliminate wages, health, safety and environmental
rules that might stand in the way of profits. Environmental
standards are being "harmonized" to the lowest level
and no country is allowed to have greater standards than others.
Bids for contracts must go to the lowest bidder no matter what
that company's labor, human rights, environmental or fiscal
record is. Did you know that in trade vernacular the term "most
favored nation treatment" actually means that one country
cannot treat another country differently regardless of their
human rights, labor or environmental record? Media coverage
still talks only about tariffs and subsidies, never about the
rules by which the corporations have usurped governments' powers.
To find out more about FTAA, see the Florida Fair Trade Coalition
Web site, www.flfairtrade.org
or the Citizens Trade Campaign Web site, www.citizenstrade.org.
We who are
members of the Presbyterians for Restoring Creation network
believe that business was made for people, not people made for
business. Yet throughout the ages, business has treated people
worse than the commodities in which they have traded and democracies
have had to "check the reins" of business. Such a
check is needed today.
Friends,
the rules that have governed democracy have been pulled out
from under our feet and given away. We're just beginning to
realize it! The good news is that we can still change it all
- once we know - and once we are committed to action.
Learn
about Presbyterians for Restoring Creation.
Your
reactions and ideas are encouraged.
Please email
or call (888) 728-7228 x5388.
Prepared
by Andrew Kang Bartlett
Associate for National Hunger Concerns
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