Trade Deals

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Comment by Joe Balkis on February 20, 2012 at 18:05

The U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange conferences in Tijuana, Mexico focus on
theses themes specifically related to workers. Please welcome Cuban
Ambassador Bolanos at this excellent and informative forum! For more
information on the Tijuana Conferences, bookmark:
laborexchange.blogspot.com

Forum on ALBA:

Latin America and the Continental Integration of the Peoples
The achievements of ALBA-TCP (alba-tcp.org) and the integration of
the continental social movements

Thursday, March *22* and Friday, March 23

5:00-8:00pm DePaul University

Schmitt Academic Center (SAC) Room *154**

*2320 N. Kenmore, Chicago

Thursday, March 22:

Conference on the Social Movements of the ALBA-TCP Nations
*Luther Castillo*, Spokesperson for the Honduran People’s Front
forNational Resistance; co-coordinator of Cuba’s Latin American
School of Medicine's international team of physicians working in Haiti
after the earthquake
Rummie Quintero, LGBT activist, Venezuela
José Aguilar, Free Software Movement, Venezuela
Amenothep Zambrano, Executive Secretary of ALBA-TCP
Jose Pertierra, represents Venezuelan government in the case to
extradite Luis Posada Carriles
*

Friday, March **23*:

Conference with Diplomats of the ALBA-TCP Nations
Francisco Campbell Hooker, Nicaragua Ambassador in Washington
Jorge Bolaños Suárez, Chief of the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington
*Angelo Rivero,* Presiding Officer of the Embassy of Venezuela in
Washington
*Freddy Bersatti Tudela*, Presiding Officer of the Embassy of the
Plurinational State of Bolivia in Washington
*Amenothep Zambrano,* Executive Secretary of ALBA-TCP

Organized by: DePaul University, General Consulate of Venezuela in
Chicago,
Chicago Committee to Free the Cuban 5, La Voz de los de Abajo.

For more information: Jesús Rodríguez Espinoza
a href="http://us.mc1123.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=ven.chicago@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ven.chicago@gmail.com <mailto:ven.chicago@gmail.com>
>; Stan Smith, uscubachi@yahoo.com <mailto:uscubachi@yahoo.com>
, 773-376-7521

* *

What is ALBA?

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Trade
Treaty of the People (ALBA-TCP) presently consists of Venezuela, Cuba,
Bolivia, Ecuador, Dominica, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Antigua and
Barbuda, and Nicaragua.

“ALBA’s fight is for a second true independence for Latin
America and Caribbean; to free ourselves from poverty and illiteracy
and achieve development for our people,” explains Amenothep
Zambrano, Executive Secretary of ALBA.
ALBA is a trade agreement that mutually benefits all parties based
on the strengths and weaknesses of each of the members. It builds
Latin American unity and solidarity through mutual economic
development, fair trade, joint development projects and South-South
coordination. This is a radical break neo-colonial history based upon
imperial exploitation, the fiction of a free market, and domination by
the United States.

Why was ALBA created?

ALBA was created as a direct response to the attempt by the United
States to impose the Free Trade Area of the Americas treaty on the
entire region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Implementation of
the FTAA would have imposed intensified neo-liberal economic policies,
increasing crushing levels of poverty, unemployment and
foreign-imposed debt.

Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro formally created ALBA on Dec. 14,
2004, at the celebration of the 180th anniversary of the victory of
Ayacucho, the day Simón Bolívar’s army won independence from Spain
The need for alliances such as ALBA is demonstrated by the more than
50-year-long war waged by the United States against Cuba, the 2002
failed U.S.-coup attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the
2009 U.S. coup against the democratically-elected pro-ALBA president
of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, the 7 new U.S. military bases in Colombia,
and the failed U.S. coups in Bolivia and Ecuador.ALBA countries have
recently condemned foreign intervention in Libya and Syria, and have
recently strengthened their ties with Iran.

What Has ALBA Accomplished?

ALBA initiatives include: the ALBA Bank, funding the different
development projects in their countries, working towards independence
from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other
exploiting global institutions; the creation of 12 public companies to
strengthen national economies in agriculture, infrastructure,
telecommunications, industrial supplies and cement production;
PetroCaribe, which greatly increases access to energy resources; and a
diverse array of health and education programs.

ALBA’s social achievements include the elimination of poverty for
11 million people in only five years, through free universal
education, food programs, and health programs. Unemployment has
dropped to 8.7%, lower than in the U.S. Literacy rates have risen from
84% to 96%; now Bolivia and Nicaragua join Cuba and Venezuela in being
free of illiteracy. Infant mortality rates have been reduced by 32%;
life expectancy increased to 73 years. 1,899.808 people have had their
vision restored or improved through Mision Milagro. 2,294,666
handicapped persons have received health care service for their
problems. Hundreds of their countries students are enrolled in
ALBA’s Latin American School of Medicine to develop still more
critically-needed medical workers.

The leading official of the Venezuela Embassy recently noted that
U.S. media routinely demonizes ALBA and its programs as threats to its
own system. He disputed that, saying that ALBA and its programs are
“not threats but opportunities taken by Latin American and Caribbean
countries to develop their own people with their own resources….We
have changed and we aren’t going back. If U.S. representatives
understand this, we will be able to go forward, if not, we will defend
what we have created!”

Comment by Joe Balkis on July 20, 2011 at 17:33

Unfathomably, President Obama has decided to push for congressional approval of three NAFTA-style trade agreements negotiated by the Bush administration.



These three deals — with Korea, Colombia and Panama — will drive our economy in exactly the wrong direction. They will incentivize more job offshoring, more labor rights abuses, more corporate tax dodging and more attacks on our health, safety, environmental and consumer financial protection rules.

Together, we can stop these trade deals. But with the House of Representatives set to vote on the deals any day, we have to act now.

Visit our National Week of Action page to see all the ways you can help oppose the bad trade deals with Korea, Colombia and Panama.

Throughout the country, hard-working families and fair trade advocates are voicing their opposition to more of the same trade policy that has proved to be a failure.

Being part of the movement to stop damaging NAFTA-style trade agreements is the best way to force Obama to return to his campaign commitments to create a new trade policy.

These three unfair deals crush our basic goals and values: a strong economy that provides family-supporting jobs; our moral obligation to promote basic human rights here and abroad; and our commitment to ensure the environmental, financial and other public interest safeguards upon which our communities’ well-being rely.

Join us in the National Week of Action. Make sure your representative votes NO on all three NAFTA-style deals:

www.citizen.org/trade-week-of-action

KOREA

The Korea trade agreement is the biggest-dollar NAFTA-style trade deal since NAFTA. Even official government studies show that it will increase our trade deficit. It is projected to kill 159,000 U.S. jobs in just its first seven years.

Like NAFTA, the Korea trade deal allows foreign corporations to skirt our courts and laws and attack our environmental safeguards as “trade pact violations” in World Bank and UN tribunals. It even threatens the new financial regulations that Congress passed to curtail the predatory practices of the Big Banks that wrecked our economy.

Obama has adopted this damaging Bush trade deal without fixing the most damaging NAFTA-replicating provisions.

COLOMBIA

In Colombia, more unionists are killed every year than anywhere in the world. In 2010, 51 unionists were assassinated — up from 37 the year Bush signed the trade deal with Colombia. Since 1986, nearly 2,860 trade unionists have been killed. Few of these cases are even prosecuted and in only six percent has a perpetrator been convicted.

Obama has endorsed this disgraceful Colombia trade deal without ensuring that Colombia ends the unionist murders and brings past perpetrators to justice. Unions in the U.S. and Colombia agree that a recent “Action Plan” introduced by Obama and supposedly “fulfilled” by the Colombian government has not and will not fix the heartbreaking and horrific situation. In fact, even as Colombia was “fully implementing” the Action Plan over the past month, four Colombian labor activists were killed.

PANAMA

The Panama trade pact is another lose-lose proposition. Panama is one of the world’s most notorious tax havens and is also a main site of drug-money laundering by Mexican and Colombian drug kingpins, according to the State Department. The risks of associating with such a financial crime center are clear.

Panama’s “competitive advantage” as a tax haven was intentionally designed with corporate and tax laws that shield information on who actually owns what, impose strict banking secrecy and waive any taxation for so-called “offshore” firms. This is a big deal, as a whopping 400,000 corporations are registered there!

Implementation of this trade deal would eliminate many of the policy tools Congress now uses to battle tax havens. It would newly empower the many offshore corporations registered in Panama to directly challenge future U.S. anti-tax-haven policies and demand cash compensation in foreign tribunals.

It’s up to all of us to make sure our members of Congress understand the gravity of this trio of unfair deals with Korea, Colombia and Panama.

Take action today and make a difference in a time in our recovering economy when it’s critically needed.

Visit our National Week of Action page to see how you can deliver your message to Congress, reach out to the public via social networks and local papers, organize a rally, and much more.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen

Comment by Tim Dymond on December 14, 2010 at 9:59

'To seek the highest possible IP protection from TPP negotiating parties'.

Yes that would be right. Of course the USA during its 'developing' years had practically non-existent IP protection. Both Charles Dickens and JRR Tolkien got hugely ripped off by the first American editions of their novels. You can hear an interview talking about it here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/movietime/stories/2010/3089532.htm

The supposed virtue of free trade agreements is that nations will shift their investments from uncompetitive to innovative industries. 'Strengthening' IP protection will damp down the innovation.

Comment by Don Sutherland on December 14, 2010 at 1:46

Here is a link to a report on a leaked document from US business that describes what the corporations are seeking on intellectual property in the Trans Partnership Agreement. 

Comment by Don Sutherland on December 13, 2010 at 0:35

TPPA talks in Auckland try to push ahead in secrecy but .... click here to see what unions and social ngo's in NZ and Australia have done to bring the talks into democratic discussion.

Comment by Don Sutherland on December 8, 2010 at 3:56

Click here for TPPAWatch - broad NZ perspective and info on the TPPA.

Comment by Don Sutherland on November 10, 2010 at 12:30

The USA's mid term election result through the prism of Fair Trade v Free Trade: http://groups.google.com/group/socialist-economics/browse_thread/th...

Comment by Don Sutherland on November 5, 2010 at 1:51

The AMWU's and AFTINET's current focus in Australia is on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), although the Oz government is up to its' armpits in other free trade negotiations also. The USA is driving the TPPA negotiations. Their aim is to try and get what they have not got from other countries in earlier bilateral free trade agreements. Very dangerous. Are there Canadian activists on the west coast who already watching this? already involved?

Comment by John MacDonald on November 4, 2010 at 18:21

How will this CETA Trade Deal affect your workplace,community or country?