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URGENT ACTION ALERT - 12/22/00 NAFTA's Seventh Anniversary: "Taking Away" our Clean Environment With George W. Bush about to take office, a nasty recent chapter of American history may be about to repeat itself. The first President George Bush launched trade talks in 1991 that established the North American Free Trade Agreement on January 1, 1994. Now George W. promises to expand NAFTA into a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) that extends from the Yukon to Tierra del Fuego. But expanding this NAFTA is a potential disaster for the environment and for democratic rights. Under the FTAA, citizens could actually be forced to pay corporate polluters not to pollute our air and water. NAFTA: Evil Spawn of the Wise Use Movement Corporate polluters have long sought the right to compensation for government actions that might cause them any loss of profits. In the 1980s, the Wise Use movement argued that constitutional protections against the "taking" of property without "just compensation" required government payments if pollution control laws hurt profits in any way, no matter how little. If implemented, the Wise Users "property rights" agenda would have throttled the ability of government to take virtually any action in the public interest. Environmentalists repeatedly stopped the "takings" agenda in Congress by exposing it as nothing but an effort to make citizens pay polluters not to pollute. We stopped the "takings" agenda under the Reagan administration. And we stopped the "takings" agenda in Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America." Environmentalists won the debate until the polluters got smart and inserted the "takings" agenda into a trade agreement called NAFTA. Under NAFTA, foreign investors based in Canada, Mexico or the United States gained a brand new right to sue governments for laws adopted in the public interest that might cost them some money. The polluters have wasted no time in using their new legal rights to attack pollution control laws.
Son of NAFTA The threat to clean air and to safe drinking water could grow under the proposed FTAA. Companies owned by any western hemisphere trading partner with investments in the United States could sue the United States over new pollution control laws, discouraging efforts to protect our environment. Venezuela-based Citgo could, for instance, sue over new standards that might tighten controls on pollution from gasoline stations. Alternatively, US companies could do the same in Latin America. For instance, US mining corporations hold billions of dollars in rights to mine for gold and other minerals beneath the Amazon rainforest. Under FTAA "takings" rules, these companies could sue for compensation if the Brazilian government moves to protect this precious natural resource or the indigenous people who live there. Make Trade Clean, Green, and Fair Trade could be a force for progress. But current trade rules are too often used to attack environmental protections and democratic rights in the name of new property rights for corporate polluters. Instead of trade agreements that knock down high standards, we need trade policies that lift standards up to the highest possible level. We need to replace "free" trade with trade that is clean, green, and fair. Get Involved! As a first step, the reality of the FTAA must be exposed. Yet the negotiations have so far been secret and no draft text has been released. Help us "celebrate" NAFTA's anniversary by placing an article, letter to the editor, or opinion editoral in a local newspaper. Then fax a copy of what you publish to the United States Trade Representative, Amb. Charlene Barshevsky. Use your letters and articles to:
Remember, keep letters to the editor short -- less than 200 words if possible. USTR Contact Information: Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
