Huge trade deficit shows need for new course
 The
figures on the U.S. merchandise trade deficit for 2000 are out. The deficit
was over $434 billion to set a new record high for the sixth year in a
row. This represented an increase of about $100 billion from the previous
year for the second year in a row.
These awful numbers guarantee that international trade will be a hot
subject in Washington this year.
The size of the deficit illustrates the need for a fundamental change
in U.S. trade policies, but that’s not how the Bush administration,
the Republican leadership in Congress, and unfortunately many Democrats
see the issue.
They are pushing ahead with proposals for new “fast track”
trade negotiating authority based on the same model that produced the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Without any effective labor and environmental provisions and with new
rights for multinational corporations, NAFTA has contributed to expanding
the trade deficit and reinforcing the downward pressure on worker and
environmental rights and standards in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
The Bush administration wants Congress to provide negotiating authority
so it can complete the negotiations to create a Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA). Bush wants to bring the agreement back to Congress under
the so-called fast track rules that prohibit amendments to fix any problems
with the deal.
The current draft of the FTAA contains no worker rights or environmental
protections. However, it provides broad protection for the rights of corporations
to limit the ability of governments to implement regulations to protect
public health and safety and to adopt policies that promote equitable
social and economic development.
The UAW and a broad coalition of allies defeated fast track proposals
in Congress in 1997 and 1998. Those proposals would have prevented the
inclusion of worker rights and environmental protections in trade agreements.
This time around corporations see the handwriting on the wall. They have
seen tens of thousands of people in the streets demonstrating against
the NAFTA model of trade agreements in Seattle and around the world. So
corporations and their free trade political allies are considering token
attention to labor and environmental issues in this year’s fast track
proposal.
But there is a big difference between token gestures and effectively
including strong worker rights and environmental protections and including
the use of trade sanctions for violations.
The UAW will insist on effective measures.
The broad opposition to extending NAFTA’s provisions to all of the
Western Hemisphere will be obvious to President Bush when he and the other
leaders travel to Quebec City in Quebec, Canada, in April for the Summit
of the Americas.
Bush’s effort to promote the FTAA negotiating process will be met
by massive protests and a rally that will bring together unions from across
the region, environmental, religious, family farm, anti-poverty, and other
groups that have experienced the negative consequences of the NAFTA model.
This demonstration will follow closely on the heels of another one that
will greet the top trade officials of the governments of the Americas
when they gather in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in early April to agree on
the draft text of the FTAA agreement.
At home and abroad, this will not be a quiet year on the trade front.
It will be a time to highlight the common interests of workers and citizens
in developed and developing countries in fair trade supported by broad-based
economic development policies.
These policies would stand the NAFTA model on its head, forcing corporations
to meet the needs of the public.
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