Fast Track Monster Out: Act Now & Forward Widely

[Guest guest]

Breaking News, What You Can Do, FTAA

 

15 minutes ago the text of the Free Trade Area of the Americas

Agreement went online for the first time so we can see it.

Please examine it at http://www.FTAA-alca.org/alca_e.asp This threatens

to harmonize the whole western hemisphere to the Codex dictates and worse.

 

Now an effort called FAST TRACK will be voted on at some unknown time

during this month of JULY, and we MUST stop it because it would hand to the

President Godlike power to unilaterally negotiate regarding this

unconstitutional "trade agreement" with ZERO checks and balances from

Congress!!!

 

What we're seeing here is an effort to impose an EU styled totaliatarian

dictatorship on the whole western hemisphere to expand NAFTA, and to

harm-onize all laws between countries, as the latest effort to force us all

into global governance wherein ALL of our rights would be stripped from us,

and Big Brother would hold ALL the cards...

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Nine Steps YOU can take to Defeat Fast Track:

 

See http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/FastTrack/pointers-to-victory.htm

 

Your Senators and Congressman are home for 4th of July Recess July 1-7.

PLEASE call their local offices to register your strong opposition to Fast

Track!

 

See if your Senator or Congressman is in the Free Traders camp by examing

their past voting history on these issues at

http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/FastTrack/ftvotes_1.HTML

 

If they oppose fast track use the letter on the Nine Steps site to thank

them, if they are pro free trade, use this letter below to communicate with

them:

 

The Honorable _______________________

 

Dear (Senator, Congressman ___________________________

 

Since the legislative battle over NAFTA in 1993, I have been following the

politics of international trade and investment with much interest. I was one of

the few who were aware of the GATT's transformation into the WTO (and

my how their profile has risen). Currently I am dismayed at the potential

impact that Mexican trucks will have on U.S. traffic safety and

disgusted (but not surprised) at the choice of Qatar as the site of the

next WTO Ministerial. But this letter is not about that.

 

This letter is about the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas

(FTAA). I think that anyone who is paying attention has a good idea what

FTAA is about; basically expanding NAFTA to the entire hemisphere

(excepting Cuba).

 

In talking to people who are monitoring FTAA as close as possible it

sounds like the FTAA will marry the worst of NAFTA and WTO. By this I mean

the combining NAFTA's Investor to State Dispute Resolution process

(private investors get to sue governments) with the WTO's General Agreement

on Trade in Services (GATS) (representing the commercialization and

privatization of traditional public sector activities).

 

Of course no one can prove this, as the draft, though said to be 95%

complete, has not been made public (not even to Congress). I understand

that the USTR's position is now public, but we are still waiting on the draft.

My sense is that Fortune 500 companies will benefit greatly from a FTAA but

that workers will be pitted against workers, environmental concerns will

be sidelined, and that the power of elected governments, at all levels, to

create and implement policy will be eroded. I think that the architects of

corporate lead globalization are afraid of the people and democracy and are

doing all that they can to keep the light of day away from their efforts.

 

I suspect that you lean towards the Free Traders camp, but I hope

that as an elected official you will look at the larger picture of how

these trade agreements undermine democracy and the institution which you now

serve.

 

We can be sure that President Bush will be asking Congress for Fast

Track authority . Back in the 1970s, when trade was mostly about goods and

tariffs, Fast Track may have been reasonable. Now, these trade deals

can affect every aspect of our lives from the quality of the food we eat to the

safety of the trucks on our highways to ability of government to pass

innovative legislation. Please promise me that you will never vote to

relinquish your duty to oversee trade agreements and to keep an open mind when

carrying out that duty.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

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