NAFTA at 13 Oversold, Flawed & Failing

NAFTA at 13Oversold, Flawed & Failing Public Lecture Sponsored by ActCity Ottawa, Oct 24, 2007 By Janet M Eaton, PhD, Academic, Activist Researcher, Globalization and Free Trade Critic jmeaton@ns.sympatico.ca Lessons from NAFTA: Building a New Fair Trade Agenda Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy http://open.iatp.org/phplist/iatpnews.php?id=1694

Introduction to the Power Point The NAFTA –Plus SPP, which expands NAFTA within a broader ‘security trumps all’ framework is being instituted and implemented by neo-liberal proponents who champion NAFTA as a success.. The successes espoused by proponents, when examined through a critical lens, provide a different picture. This power point lays out evidence that NAFTA was oversold, based on flawed neo-liberal assumptions and that it has failed to deliver on many of its original promises. - Janet M Eaton, PhD Janet M Eaton, PhD

In Canada, US and Mexico NAFTA resistance is rapidly escalating and opposition parties, elected representatives, citizens, NGO’s, think tanks and many policy centres are calling for NAFTA to be re-negotiated and replaced by fair trade agreements or at a minimum to address offensive sections on water, energy, Ch 11, tribunals, etc. 1 --- Janet M Eaton, PhD _____________________________________________ 1. See Reference Slide 121 NAFTA Resistance Growing Calls for Renegotiation and Oversight Slide Show by Janet M Eaton http://www.stopthehogs.com/pdf/nafta-resistance.pdf. Introduction to the Power Point Janet M Eaton, PhD

1. Introduction : A flawed and failing NAFTA should not be basis for SPP, NAFTA plus, continental integration • 2. NAFTA Context Historical and Economic Globalization • 3. NAFTA – Defined • 4. NAFTA - Oversold • 5. NAFTA – Flawed assumptions • 6. NAFTA –Failed Promises • General • Canada • United States • Mexico • Reference to related power points NAFTA – Flawed, Failing, & Finding Alternatives – Outline Lessons from NAFTA: a New Fair Trade Agenda Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy http://open.iatp.org/phplist/iatpnews.php?id=1694

If you read any Canadian newspaper, you’ve been treated to the same refrain: NAFTA has been good for Canada. It has led to economic growth and jobs for Canadians. And given that it’s been so wonderful for Canada, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) could only make things better, right? ... The truth is that NAFTA has been responsible for growing poverty, the creation of a new underclass called the “working poor,” and the concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people. --Jean-Yves LeFort is The Council of Canadians’ Trade Campaigner. _______________________________________________________________ Free Trade’s Big Lie: NAFTA has failed to create quality jobs or close the income gap. - special 12-page supplement featuring for Integrate This Forum March 31- April 1, 2007 Ottawa http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/backgrounders/index.html 1. NAFTA – Oversold, Flawed,& Failing is Basis of the NAFTA-Plus SPP

1. NAFTA – Oversold, Flawed,& Failing is Basis of the NAFTA-Plus SPP Every time you point out that NAFTA hasn’t delivered the economic benefits that were promised, the defenders of NAFTA say that’s because there’s a little fly in the ointment, there’s a little problem, there’s still a little friction, pointing now to things like rules of origin’ …or pointing to other non- tariff barriers that are inhibiting the perfect Free Trade we want to see. Jim Stanford * ____________________________ * Interviewed inHoodwinked: The Myth of Free Trade. 2006. Producers Linda West & Bill Dunnhttp://www.westdunn.ca/hoodwinked/ Jim Stanford , Economist CAW, writer for globe & Mail

So now we’ve got proposals for so-called deeper integration: • A customs union • Eliminating rules of origin • Common external trade policies • Even common security and immigration policies where we kind of draw a line around North America • Then you’ll get those benefits we’ve been waiting for and still haven’t seen. –Jim Stanford * • ___________________________ • * Interviewed in Hoodwinked: The Myth of Free Trade. 2006. Producers Linda West & Bill Dunn http://www.westdunn.ca/hoodwinked/ 1. NAFTA – Oversold, Flawed,& Failing is Basis of the NAFTA-Plus SPP Jim Stanford , Economist CAW, writer for globe & Mail

The first set of agreements FTA and NAFTA did not fulfill their proponent’s promises. The government has never undertaken an honest examination of the costs and benefits of NAFTA The proponents just gloss over the inconvenient facts: NAFTA they say has greatly increased exports and investment; Canada’s trade surplus is up; unemployment is down; Inflation is low; wages are flat; business is experiencing record profits; growth is steady. Therefore NAFTA has been a success. What is there to re-examine? Let’s just move forward and build on what we’ve achieved. But Did NAFTA deliver the goods in terms of bettering the lives of Canadian citizens? ____________________________________ – Living With Uncle. Canada –US Relations in an Age of Empire. 2006. Ch 1 2006 1. NAFTA – Oversold, Flawed,& Failing is Basis of the NAFTA-Plus SPP

1. NAFTA – Oversold, Flawed,& Failing is Basis of the NAFTA-Plus SPP Former International Trade Minister Roy McLaren in his OP-Ed Piece in the Globe and Mail May 2005 stated: Forget dreams for a bold new custom’s union –let’s fix the one we have. Canada should continue to work for full realization of NAFTA, including it’s environmental and labour side agreements, and its dispute –settlement procedures…Let’s not be sidetracked by such unrealizable chimera as a “grand bargain” somehow emerging as NAFTA heads into its second decade.” ____________________________________________ The Three Amigos have work to do . Globe and Mail May 30, 2005 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050530/CONAFTA30/TPComment/TopStories)

By 1867- Sir John A- won an election on nation building platform that included tariffs to protect Canadian manufacturing , the construction of a transcontinental railway and settlement of the west –MacDonald’s national policy as it was called and his aversion to continentalism influenced conservative party thinking until 1988 –but the lobbyists never rested – money and influence were used to peddle a number of ideas under different names free trade, commercial union , annexation , reciprocity, and harmonization – But each time when brought to an election Canadians turned it down and this is why we have a country !! ___________________________________ Laurier Lapierre narrating Hoodwinked: The Myth of Free Trade. 2006. Producers Linda West & Bill Dunn 2. NAFTA Historical Context of Continental Integration

Military invasions/ Annexation/ Reciprocity/ Free Trade Military Invasions: 4 attempts War of 1812 Final attempt to take Canada by force ; Annexation - 1840s During 1840s their was a cry for annexation as American interests advanced westward. Manifest Destiny - 1840 When neither law nor History favours your action you’d better invoke god or providence to bolster your actions. Reciprocity: Wilfrid Laurier 1911 defeated “Reciprocity” free trade deal with the United States defeated the Liberals under Laurier in 1911 2. NAFTA Historical Context of Continental Integration

St. Patrick's Day, 1985: Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and President Ronald Reagan sing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" together to cap off the "Shamrock Summit", a 24-hour meeting in Quebec City that opened the door to future free trade talks between the countries. Commentator Eric Kierans observed that "The general impression you get, is that our prime minister invited his boss home for dinner." Canadian historian Jack Granatstein said that this "public display of sucking up to Reagan may have been the single most demeaning moment in the entire political history of Canada's relations with the United States.” __________________________________ http://www.vivelecanada.ca/staticpages/index.php/20060830133702539 2.NAFTA Historical Context of Continental Integration

Free Trade Era: • 1965-trade liberalization stems from the U.S.- Canada Auto Pact • 1988 CUSFTA or FTA – The Canada US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA or FTA) goes into effect. • 1994 NAFTA – The North American Free Trade Agreement and the two agreements on labour and the environment go into effect, replacing CUSFTA. • Towards a North American Community • 2004 North American Partnership Agreement US • 2005 SPP – Security and Prosperity Partnership of North • America (Agreed on by Bush, Martin, Fox March 23, 2005) • NACC – North American Competitiveness Council • March, 2006 ( Agreed to by Bush, Harper, Calderon) 2.NAFTA Historical Context of Continental Integration

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization Context • Historical Perspective – 1970s 1980s • Structural Economic Shifts • Emergence of Free Market Economic Globalization as liberal economic ideas perceived to have failed • Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman – influential economists favouring free market capitalism • British PM Margaret Thatcher – There is no Alternative (TINA) • US President Ronald Reagan and Can. PM Brian Mulroney –Free Trade Cheerleaders in US and Canada

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization Context • Global corporate economic model: • Free Trade • Privatization • De-regulation • Smaller Government • Global /Regional Trade Structures/Instruments • GATT/ WTO - GATS • World Bank • IMF • NAFTA Secretariat

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization Context “Until 1973, Friedman's radical doctrine (of neo-liberal free market economics) stayed in his classroom, but all that changed on an earlier September 11. Following General Augusto Pinochet's bloody ascent to power, he had a real life laboratory as advisor to the new Chilean dictator. His prescription came to be known as the "Chicago School" revolution of rapid-fire economic transformation he called "shock treatment," now known as "shock therapy." -------------------------------------------------------- Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" - Stephen Lendman Book Review, Sept 19, 2007. Atlantic Free Press. http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2436/81/ Milton Friedman, Chicago School of Economics

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization Context Millions know its lessons -it's central tenets are structurally adjusted mass-privatizations, government deregulation, unrestricted free market access for foreign corporations, and deep cuts in social spending with repressive laws, harsh crackdowns and torture along for the ride to reinforce the core tenet Reaganites call "trickle down" and Brits call "Thatcherism." -------------------------------------------------------- Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" - Stephen Lendman Book Review, Sept 19, 2007. Atlantic Free Press. http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2436/81/ Milton Friedman, Chicago School of Economics

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization Context • Global /Regional Trade Instruments • GATT/ WTO - GATS • NAFTA Secretariat • “Together these instruments are engineering a power shift of stunning proportions, moving real economic and political power away from national, state, and local governments and communities toward unprecedented centralization of power for global corporations, bankers, and the global bureaucracies they helped to create at the expense of national sovereignty, community control , democracy , diversity and the natural world !” • _____________________________________ • John Cavanaugh & Jerry Mander (Eds). 2004. Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A better World is Possible. San Francisco, BK Publishers Inc.

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization Context The main concerns with this model include: 1. THE RULE OF THE MARKET / FREE TRADE . Liberating "free" enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reducing wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. Assumption: "an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." 2. CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE for social services like education and health care. Reducing the safety-net for the poor, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply in the name of reducing government's role while not opposing government subsidies and tax benefits for business. _________________________________________________________ http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization Context • The main concerns with this model include: • 3. DEREGULATION. Reduction of government regulation of everything that could diminish profits, including protecting the environment and safety on the job. • 4. PRIVATIZATION. Selling of state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs. • ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF "THE PUBLIC GOOD" or "COMMUNITY" and replacing it with "individual responsibility”, pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as "lazy.“ • _________________________________________________________ • http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization ContextSigns of Failure • Corporate Driven Globalization is: • collapsing (J.R.Saul, 2005) • in a shambles (J Stiglitz, 2006) • is receding (Walden Bello, 2007) • is in at the end of its ‘Golden Era’ (Mander & Cavanaugh, 2006)

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization ContextSigns of Failure • John Ralston Saul, the noted Canadian political philosopher writes in The Collapse of Globalism & inHarper’s Article The End of Globalism which preceded the book: • Grand economic theories such as globalism are short lived. • Globalization is now collapsing. • Grand ideologies rarely disappear overnight. Those in positions of power will hang on to old ways. • _________________________________ • John Ralston Saul. 2004. The End of Globalism. Harper’s • http://afr.com/articles/2004/02/19/1077072774981.html

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization ContextSigns of Failure Fifteen years ago, we were told to expect the emergence of a transnational capitalist elite that would manage the world economy. Indeed, globalization became the "grand strategy" which envisioned the U.S. elite being the primus inter pares -- first among equals -- of a global coalition leading the way to the new, benign world order. Today, this project lies in shambles. The IMF is practically defunct. .., more and more of the advanced developing countries are refusing to borrow from it or are paying ahead of schedule, with some declaring their intention never to borrow again. These include Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, and Argentina. --- Joseph Stiglitz former Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank, Professor Emeritus, Nobel Laureate , author of Making Globalization Work, 2006. ______________________________________ * Stiglitz’ book Globalization and Its Discontents (W.W. Norton June 2001) has been translated into 35 languages and has sold more than one million copies worldwide. His newest book, Making Globalization Work, was published by W W Norton and Penguin/ Allen Lane in September 2006.

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization ContextSigns of Failure • Sold to the world as a panacea for all problems, economic globalization has not lived up to its advertizing: • It has not lifted the poor; it has instead brought record disparities in income and wealth between rich and poor nations, and within nations. • It has destroyed local communities and pushed farmers off their traditional lands • It has accelerated the greatest environmental breakdown in history. • --John Cavanaugh & Jerry Mander (Eds). 2004. Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A better World is Possible. San Francisco, BK Publishers Inc.

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization ContextSigns of Failure • The failures of the neo-liberal project find their context in the underlying economic model which demands: • Unlimited economic growth • A never ending expanding supply of inexpensive resources • Steady supply of cheap labour • Compliant governments to collaborate -- John Cavanaugh & Jerry Mander • ______________________________________ • John Cavanaugh & Jerry Mander (Eds). 2004. Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A better World is Possible. San Francisco, BK Publishers Inc.

2. NAFTA Economic Globalization ContextSigns of Failure • Three Landmark events punctuated the end of the “Golden Era” of Corporate –driven economic globalization. -- Mander & Cavanaugh, 2004 • 1. Collapse of the WTO talks –Cancun (2003) • 2. Breakdown of FTAA negotiations Miami Free Trade Area of the Americas (2003) • Overwhelming global reaction and resistance to the US invasion fo Iraq (2001)

2.Globalization - Signs of Collapse “ You have to realize that what they're trying to do is to roll back the Enlightenment, roll back the moral philosophy and social values of classical political economy and its culmination in Progressive Era legislation, as well as the New Deal institutions. They're not trying to make the economy more equal, and they're not trying to share power. Their greed is (as Aristotle noted) infinite. So what you find to be a violation of traditional values is a re-assertion of pre- industrial, feudal values. The economy is being set back on the road to debt peonage. The Road to Serfdom is not government sponsorship of economic progress and rising living standards; it's the dismantling of government, the dissolution of regulatory agencies, to create a new feudal-type elite.” --- Professor Michael Hudson * ----------------------------------------------------------------- * President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1972 and 2003)http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney08292008.html Prof. Michael Hudson

2.Globalization - Signs of Collapse • A plethora of recent books and research warn that the present corporate globalized fossil fuel economy propped up by the militarism is leading to: • Collapse of Corp. Globalization • Collapse of oil (peak oil) • Collapse of US economy • Collapse of the American Empire • Climate Change –global warming • Collapse of ecosystems • Collapse of civilization!

3. NAFTA What is it ? Free Trade Area The degree of economic integration can be categorized as six stages: 1. Preferential trading area 2. Free trade area * (NAFTA) 3. Customs union (SPP moving towards) 4. Common market (partially under NAFTA) 5. Economic and monetary union (Amero floated) 6. Complete economic integration As economic integration increases, the barriers of trade between markets diminishes. The most integrated economy today, between independent nations, is the European Union and its euro zone. __________________________________________ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_integration Basics of the theory written by Hungarian Economist Béla Balassa in the 1960s. European Union most integrated economy today

3. NAFTA What is it ? • Free Trade Area - The lowest level of integration is a free trade area which involves only the removal of tariffs and quotas among the parties. • Custom’s Union -. The participant countries set up common external trade policy. If a common external tariff is added, then a customs union has been created • The next level, a common market, requires free movement of people and capital as well as goods and services. It is this stage where institutional development becomes critical. • The stage of economic union requires a high degree of coordination or even unification of policies. This sets the foundation for political union. • Blurring the lines – see next slide • ____________________________________________________________ • Government of Canada. Stages of Economic Integration: http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/inbrief/prb0249-e.htm ContinentalIntegration – North American Union

3. NAFTA What is it ? 5. Blurring the lines - Because countries are free to negotiate economic integration agreements as they see fit, in practice, formal agreements rarely fall neatly into one of the four stages discussed above. This can lead to some confusion of terminology and also confusion as to the state of economic integration in some parts of the world. In the case of Canada, for example, the country is part of a free trade area with the United States and Mexico. However, the North American Free Trade Agreement also includes provisions that partially liberate the flow of labour and capital in the region – an element of a common market __________________________________________________________________ Government of Canada. Stages of Economic Integration: http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/inbrief/prb0249-e.htm ContinentalIntegration – North American Union

3. NAFTA –What is it ? • What is the NAFTA ( North American Free Trade Agreement )? • In January 1994, the United States, Mexico and Canada entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), creating the largest free trade area and richest market in the world. The NAFTA is the most comprehensive regional trade agreement ever negotiated by the United States and is scheduled to be fully implemented by the year 2008. 1. • By strengthening the rules and procedures governing trade and investment throughout the continent, NAFTA has proved to be a solid foundation for building Canada’s future prosperity. 2 • ___________________________________________________ • http://www.library.unt.edu/gpo/oca/nafta.htm • http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/nafta-alena/over-en.asp

3. NAFTA –What is it ? The objectives of NAFTA: Article 102: Objectives 1. The objectives of this Agreement, as elaborated more specifically through its principles and rules, including national treatment, most-favored-nation treatment and transparency are to: (a) eliminate barriers to trade in, and facilitate the cross border movement of, goods and services between the territories of the Parties; (b) promote conditions of fair competition in the free trade area; (c) increase substantially investment opportunities in their territories; (d) provide adequate and effective protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in each Party's territory; (e) create effective procedures for the implementation and application of this Agreement, and for its joint administration and the resolution of disputes; (f) establish a framework for further trilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation to expand and enhance the benefits of this Agreement. ( i.e serve as a foundation for deeper integration –JME ) ______________________________________________________________ Canada and the North American Free Trade Agreement http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/nafta-alena/index.aspx

3. NAFTA –What is it ? • The United States and Canada conduct the world’s largest bilateral trade relationship, with total merchandise trade (exports and imports) exceeding $499.3 billion in 2005. • While Canada is an important trading partner for the United States, the United States is the dominant trade partner for Canada, and trade is a dominant feature of the Canadian economy. • The United States and Canada also have significant stakes in each other’s economy through foreign direct investment. • Both countries are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and both are partners with Mexico in the NAFTA. • _______________________________________________ • CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web, Order Code RL33087 • United States-Canada Trade and Economic Relationship: Prospects and Challenges • Updated March 29,2006

3. NAFTA –What is it ? According to University of Toronto political economist Stephen Clarkson, NAFTA provided the “constitutional” framework for locking in neoliberal policies, and accelerating continental economic integration _______________________ Stephen Clarkson 2003.Paradigm Shift or Paradigm Twist? The Impact of the Bush Doctrine on Canada. http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/deep_papers/Clarkson- Banda.PDF

3. NAFTA –What is it ? “The great 1988 free trade debate …resulted in the passage of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It was a watershed event that … enhanced the power of capital relative to workers and communities, and limited the power of government to regulate and shape the market. It thus ensured that integration would not only accelerate, but do so within a neoliberal policy mold. This has made it more difficult for progressive-minded governments to advance their policy agendas, and more difficult to advance just society goals, let alone hold onto existing social achievements. Five years later, the FTA—deepened and extended to Mexico—was converted and expanded to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).”_____________________________ Bruce Campbell. Introduction. Living With Uncle. Canada –US Relations in an Age of Empire. 2006.

3. NAFTA –What is it ? • Trade treaties like NAFTA, GATT, and proposed FTAA set rules favoring corporations resulting in: • Well paying unionized US manufacturing jobs shifting to low-wage countries • Lower wages and living standards everywhere • Weakened worker rights in all nations • Environmental damage domestically and in other countries • Cuts in social safety nets • ____________________________ • Source: The Growing Divide: Inequality and the Roots of Economic Insecurity, p. 19, United for a Fair Economy, May 2000.

NAFTA opponents - including labor, environmental, consumer and religious groups - argued that NAFTA would launch a race-to-the-bottom in wages, destroy hundreds of thousands of good U.S. jobs, undermine democratic control of domestic policy-making and threaten health, environmental and food safety standards. NAFTA promoters - including many of the world’s largest corporations - promised it would create hundreds of thousands of new high-wage US jobs, raise living standards in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, improve environmental conditions and transform Mexico from a poor developing country into a booming new market for U.S. exports. ____________________________________________________ Public Citizen Global Trade Watch NAFTA http://www.citizen.org/trade/nafta/ 3. NAFTA –What is it ?

Why such divergent views? NAFTA was a radical experiment -NAFTA contained 900 pages of one-size-fits-all rules to which each nation was required to conform all of its domestic laws - regardless of whether voters and their democratically-elected representatives had previously rejected the very same policies in Congress, state legislatures or city councils… Now, over a decade later, the time for conjecture and promises is over: the data are in and they clearly show the damage NAFTA has wrought for millions of people in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Thankfully, the failed NAFTA model - a watered down version of which is also contained in the World Trade Organization (WTO) - is merely one among many options. ___________________________________________________ Global Trade Watch NAFTA http://www.citizen.org/trade/nafta/ 3. NAFTA –What is it ?

4. NAFTA - Was Oversold ! “NAFTA’s champions …oversold their case. It was never plausible, for instance, to expect NAFTA would be a net creator of jobs” ------------------------------ The Economist, Jan 3rd, 2004 http://www.economist.com/printedition/cover_index.cfm?year=2004&quarter=1&edition=US

“FROM the start, the North American Free-Trade Agreement was bitterly controversial in all three of the countries taking part—the United States, Canada and Mexico. Its terms, which went into effect on January 1st 1994, were argued over line by line: … More than this, the agreement was attacked as bad in principle. Everybody recognized that NAFTA was an extraordinarily bold attempt to accelerate economic integration—or, as critics put it, an experiment in reckless globalization. As such, they said, it would destroy jobs, make the poor worse off and start an environmental race to the bottom. ------------------------------ Free trade on trial. The Economist. Jan 3, 2004 http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2312920 4. NAFTA - Was Oversold ! “Equally, advocates of the agreement made some bold claims about the good it would bring. Far from destroying jobs, it would create lots of new and better ones; incomes would rise and the poor would benefit proportionately; growth would accelerate and, to the extent that this posed environmental challenges, extra resources would be available to meet them. …”

4. NAFTA -Was Oversold ! • “The Democrats who, in the 1990s, gave America the Uruguay round, the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and permanent most-favoured-nation trading status for China have changed. Alas, none of the leading candidates, and precious few Democrats of any stripe, would now call themselves free-traders. • Even Hillary Clinton, the most centrist of the leading Democratic contenders, … has found it politic to project herself as a trade skeptic. • The two leading candidates to her left have gone further. John Edwards and Barack Obama have both denounced NAFTA and called for its renegotiation. None of the three supported moves to extend the president's “fast-track” trade negotiation authority, which expired last month.” • ___________________________________ • The Democrats. The cross of gold. The Economist. Jul 19th 2007 http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9516433 (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20167927/displaymode/1176/rstry/20167889/

4. NAFTA -Was Oversold ! “Free Trade with Mexico- if you asked me in 2000 I was then ready to conclude that NAFTA was a major success… “I was a true believer in NAFTA--the North American Free Trade Agreement. Now my faith is not gone but shaken.” -- Brad DeLong, (neo-liberal) economist and creator of one of the net’s most popular weblogs on economics, at www.j-bradford-delong.net. ____________________________ http://www.clas.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/fall2006/10-16-06-delong/index.html Prof. Brad DeLong "Afta Thoughts on NAFTA” October 16, 2006 http://www.clas.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/fall2006/10-16-06-delong/index.html

4. NAFTA -Was Oversold ! “Having witnessed Mexico’s slow growth over the past 15 years, we can no longer repeat the old mantra that the neoliberal road of NAFTA and associated reforms is clearly and obviously the right one. Would some other, alternative, non-neoliberal development strategy have been better for Mexico in the late 1990s and early 2000s? Would it have been better to have urged President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to focus his efforts on investments in education and infrastructure and on trying to clean up corruption rather than on free trade? Perhaps.” _________________________ http://www.clas.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/fall2006/10-16-06-delong/index.html Prof. Brad DeLong "Afta Thoughts on NAFTA” October 16, 2006 http://www.clas.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/fall2006/10-16-06-delong/index.html

While 79% of Canadian exports go to the us, • that is not 79% of GDP which is often confounded in interpretation of the statistics.1 • Foreign trade is responsible for about 45 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP).2 • If 79% of trade is with US, exports to US represent about 36% of our economy • Much trade is still interprovincial • __________________________________ • 1. Linda West, Producer of Hoodwinked: The Myth of Free Trade. Personal Communication August 23, 2007 • 2. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Canada-OVERVIEW-OF-ECONOMY.html 4. NAFTA -Was Oversold !

Some of NAFTA’s Flaws: • Not free trade • Asymmetry in the relationship • Ch 11 Investor State mechansism • d) Ch 6 on Energy flawed • e) Water was not excluded • f) Dispute Resolution • g) • The SPP is based on multiple flaws ! 5. NAFTA’s Flawed Assumptions

Dalton Camp, David Orchard, Shadria Drury, Paul Obermeyer, John Turner, Linda West , Jim Stanton, expose NAFTA flaws in Hoodwinked : The Myth of Free Trade. 2006. Producers Linda West & Bill Dunn http://www.westdunn.ca/hoodwinked/ 5. NAFTA’s Flawed Assumptions Linda West

“I was and am a free trader- my argument with the deal was that it was not free trade • It didn’t control subsidies on either side of the border • It didn’t include anti - trust actions • It didn’t include countervail • It didn’t restrict what Congress calls presidential discretion • It rather left both sides with all the levers it needed to interfere with free trade- • It wasn’t a free trade agreement !” • -- Former PM John Turner in Hoodwinked • ___________________________________ • Hoodwinked: The Myth of Free Trade. 2006. Producers Linda West & Bill Dunn http://www.westdunn.ca/hoodwinked/ 5. NAFTA’s Flaws(a) not free trade Former Canadian Liberal Prime Minister John Turner

5. NAFTA’s Flaws(a) not free trade “We’ve had more harassment than before the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) - – we’ve agreed to allow them to use all of their trade laws against Canada whenever they wish – so we are worse off than before when we traded under the GATT – umbrella - now morphed into the WTO. We were much better off because they couldn’t use their trade remedy laws against us with impunity as they can now. – David Orchard __________________________________ Hoodwinked: The Myth of Free Trade. 2006. Producers Linda West & Bill Dunn http://www.westdunn.ca/hoodwinked/ David Orchard, farmer, author, politician

Author and activist David Korten sums up Adam Smith’s thinking on free trade: “His vision of an efficient market was one composed of small owner-managed enterprises located in the communities where the owners resided. Such owners would share in the community’s values and have a personal stake in its future. It is a market that has little in common with a globalized economy dominated by massive corporations without local or national allegiance, managed by professionals who are removed from real owners by layers of investment institutions and holding companies.” _________________________________ NI Guide to Globalization.2002, Wayne Ellwood 5. NAFTA’s Flaws(a) not free trade David Korten, business specialist, author, change agent

NAFTA at 13 Oversold, Flawed & Failing