PRESS STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tri-national meeting of Harper,
Bush, and Calderon in Montebello, Quebec
(Ottawa, Montreal, Mexico City and Washington-
August 17, 2007) - On August 20-21, US President Bush and Mexican President
Calderon join Canadian Prime Minister Harper to push forward the
“Security and Prosperity Partnership” (SPP), a business-led NAFTA plus
agenda. The three heads-of-state will meet at the Chateau Montebello
behind a massive security cordon that is meant to keep the public away.
However corporate CEOs, members of the North American Competitiveness
Council (NACC) will be on hand offering direct input into these talks. The Council’s 10 Canadian members were appointed in
June 2006 by Prime Minister Harper and given privileged access to
government Ministers to push their corporate vision for continental
‘integration’.
An alliance of citizen’s groups
in the three North American countries has challenged not only the
agenda of this leaders’ meeting but also the secrecy which surrounds
the ongoing SPP discussions. << The Canadian Council of Chief
Executives (CCCE) and the Competitiveness Council (NACC) which it
serves advise top government officials, but the public is not granted
access to these decision makers,>> comments Rick Arnold of Common
Frontiers, a Canadian network of union, church, environment,
international development and student organizations.<>
Energy security for whom?
All signs indicate that top of
the agenda for this ‘three amigos’ meeting will be the topic of energy
security in North America, with Canada and Mexico sacrificing their own
energy security needs to meet US demand. Canada gave away its ability
to control the levels of oil and gas exports to the US when it signed
on to a NAFTA proportional sharing clause some 14 years ago. As a
result Canada finds itself obliged to send some 65 per cent of its
production stateside and now has to import 40 percent of its
domestically consumed oil (increasingly from Algeria and Iraq) to make
up the short fall. Mexico protected its energy under NAFTA because it
negotiated an exemption to proportional sharing and recognition of
public ownership of petroleum is written into its Constitution.
However, in these Montebello talks there will be a focus on ‘helping’
Mexico make its energy sector more competitive – with a little
privatizing ‘help’ from oil transnationals. Washington will also be
seeking a commitment from its two neighbours to speed up oil and gas
exploration and production while building north-south pipelines to
refineries in the US.
<< Given that easily
accessible oil sources are in rapid decline while the US appetite for
fossil fuels continues to grow, Mexicans could be left in the dark and
Canadians left to freeze as their energy reserves are sucked
dry >>, comments Normand Pepin of the Montreal-based Réseau
Québécois sur l’Intégration Continentale (RQIC). « That is why on
August 18th in Montreal, RQIC and three other North American networks
are sponsoring a tri-national meeting of labour leaders from the major
north American unions representing energy sector workers>> adds
Mr. Pepin. << This gathering marks a new level of cross-border
cooperation to discuss a different vision for the future of the energy
sector in North America >>.
SPP decisions made without
public input
We are faced with a new phase of
neo-liberal integration in North America where decision-making on
important changes under the SPP umbrella has the government’s Executive
Branch bypassing our democratic institutions. In addition to the
leaders’ focus on energy security, there will be reports from 19
tri-national working groups that are exploring some 300 issues/areas
under the SPP umbrella. Proponents claim that there is only some
tinkering with regulations and harmonization of standards going on,
nothing that should worry the public, and certainly nothing to debate
in the legislature. The reality is otherwise. Based on the questionable
principle that our prosperity depends on our security, multiple
tri-national SPP committees are implementing military and security
measures, while pushing corporate-driven ‘integration’ of everything
from food testing and labeling to the shape of North American energy
and electricity grids.
In the last four months the
Harper government announced that Canadians will have to adapt to having
more pesticides on our imported foods as Canada harmonizes (raises) the
amount of allowable pesticides on imported fruit and vegetables to
bring it in to line with US and Mexican levels. In introducing
regulatory changes meant to green up Canada’s oil patch, Ottawa bent to
Washington’s wishes and has signalled that it is prepared to expedited
tar sands production. Then in June of this year Canada inaugurated it’s
own version of the US ‘no-fly’ list. It contains a guestimated 2000
names of Canadians who are deemed ‘security risks’ and who, unbenounced
to them, are in grave danger of having their names circulated
world-wide.
‘Rules of Origin’ costs
manufacturing jobs
At a time when both Canada and
Mexico are losing manufacturing jobs at an alarming rate, the NAFTA
Working Group on Rules of Origin is set to report to the three leaders
in Montebello on their efforts to further ‘liberalize’ this area. Rules
of origin exist to track which country manufactured the components that
go into exported products, and what preferential tarrifs (if any)
should be applied. Bottom line - where manufacturing happens, jobs are
created.
However, this Working Group on
Rules of Origin has prioritized the cheap purchase of components over
job creation in the NAFTA countries. For Mexico this has meant that
‘Mexican content’ in their manufactured exports has dropped from 90% to
30%, with a consequent loss of countless jobs, particularly for workers
in small and medium-sized firms. The Canadian experience is also
negative as rules of origin decisions have contributed to the loss of
250,000 manufacturing jobs over the past 5 years – an average of 150
good jobs disappearing each day. Not content with the damage already
done to the manufacturing sector, the Working Group on Rules of Origin
will apparently be recommending in Montebello preferential access
treatment for components coming from all countries that have signed
free trade agreements (FTAs) with the NAFTA threesome, as if those
components had been produced within the North American perimeter [as
for example in the case of FTA negotiations with Central American
countries].
A ‘Plan Colombia’ for Mexico?
Recent press reports indicate
that the Bush and Calderon administrations have been negotiating
quietly to seal a major deal on a multiyear aid package to supposedly
combat drug cartels in Mexico, and a top US Government official is
predicting that an announcement is to be made at the Summit in
Montebello. Elements of this aid plan would include telephone-tapping
equipment that opens the door to illegal spying activities on Mexican
citizens, aircraft to transport Mexican anti-drug teams, and assorted
training initiatives for Mexican officials. These talks have been
mostly hidden from the media, legislators and the public until now
given Mexican sensitivities about past US invasions and interventions
on Mexican soil. Given similarities to the controversial US funded Plan
Colombia that has been used not only against drug lords in that country
but also against citizens who oppose the Bogota government, the Mexican
public might well be concerned about the Bush administration’s
secretive new ‘aid’ initiative. Mexican Action Network on Free Trade
(RMALC) spokesperson Alejandro Villamar reminds his government of
Mexico’s historic devotion to principles of non-intervention in the
affairs of other countries <>
<> concludes Villamar.
The US should stop ‘fear
mongering’
The Washington-based Alliance
for Responsible Trade (ART) stresses that a Democratic Congress may be
able to slow down the agenda and achieve some transparency about what
the SPP is seeking, but even in the new-look Congress there is little
awareness about the SPP’s intent. At the same
time ART spokesperson Tom Loudon notes that US foreign policy is likely
to continue on its destructive course since most Democrats are beholden
to corporate interests.
<>
according to Loudon. He goes on to point out that <> Loudon adds that <>
Public policy should trump
private interests
The alliance four networks call
on legislators in all three countries to demand full transparency on
the SPP process and to put a stop to the undemocratic corporate access
to Ministers and other top government officials accorded the North
American Competitiveness Council.
The four networks emphasize that
North American leaders should be openly discussing issues of vital
public concern. They can start with the growing polarization of incomes
and wealth in each of their societies, the imperative of guaranteed
universal access to public health services, and the need for immediate
joint efforts to combat global warming.
--
For more information, please
contact:
Rick Arnold, Common Frontiers: Cell
905-373-8792; comfront@web.ca
Normand Pepin, RQIC: Tel. (514) 217-6529; pepinn@csd.qc.ca
Alejandro Villamar , RMALC :
Tel. 011 (52) (55) 5356-0599; rmalc@laneta.apc.org
Tom Loudon, ART-USA: Tel. (301) 204-9549; toml@quixote.org
