September 10, 2002 Letter from Global Exchange about organizing to Stop FTAA Dear Fair Trader, As we see the effects of 'free trade' on the coffee industry and organize for the Fair Trade alternative, we must also work to stop the spreading of the 'free trade' virus across the globe. We hope you will add your support to the thousands of people across the hemisphere who are organizing to STOP the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which will have a hugely damaging effect on poor small farmers throughout the hemisphere! Background The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is the expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to every country in Central America, South America and the Caribbean, except Cuba. Negotiations began right after the completion of NAFTA in 1994 and are to be completed by 2004. Negotiated behind closed doors, with no citizen input but plenty of suggestions from business interests, the FTAA is yet another example of the kind of free-market fundamentalism that has created a global race to the bottom that erodes environmental protection, workers' livelihoods, and human rights. If you think NAFTA has been a disaster for working families and the environment in the US, Canada, and Mexico, this will be far worse. The FTAA will have a huge impact on people's everyday lives -- on the food that we eat, the water that we drink, our children's access to education, our healthcare and essential medicines, and our electricity. In the United States, 43 million people lack healthcare coverage, one in five children is growing up in poverty, small family farms and businesses are loosing out to multinational corporations, and two million people are incarcerated, many for nonviolent, poverty related crimes. The FTAA will likely increase economic inequality both within and between countries by concentrating wealth, promoting privatization of human and other essential services, and removing protections for small farmers and businesses. The FTAA, like NAFTA, will undermine the right to safe, healthy and food security. NAFTA, which effectively increased trade in food products when tariffs (taxes on goods and services crossing borders) were reduced, does not require member countries to maintain minimum levels of food safety standards. For example, under NAFTA, meat and poultry imports that do not meet U.S. safety standards are imported and sold throughout the U.S. The increase of fruits and vegetables from Mexico under NAFTA actually coincided with severe cuts to Mexico's domestic food inspection budget. In 1992, Mexico's spending on food safety was $25 million US dollars, but by 1995, it had been slashed to $5 million. Similarly, cash strapped governments in the Americas are unlikely to spend much money on food safety and agricultural inspection. If the FTAA is modeled on NAFTA, these problems will intensify. Already people throughout the Americas are mobilizing to educate their communities about this coming "free trade" regime. The Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART) is a national network of labor, family-farm, religious, women's, environmental, development and research organizations that promotes equitable and sustainable trade and development. ART is the United States counterpart of the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA), a hemisphere-wide alliance representing over 60 million people opposed to the corporate free trade agenda. The HSA is proposing a concrete alternative to the FTAA Alternatives for the Americas. This document can be found at: http://www.asc-hsa.org/ Action YOU can take This summer and fall (2002) MANY events will be taking place all over the United States (if you receive this and are not in the US, please contact me and I¹ll put you in touch with organizing groups in your country). 1. LEARN -- Global Justice List Serve. The list-serve posts updates and actions on our work to challenge unjust, secretive global rulemaking by the World Bank, IMF, WTO and the proposed FTAA. Our Global Justice (Bay Area) list sends out the same information as the Global Justice list, plus information on events and meetings that you can attend locally in the Bay Area. You can sign yourself up for these lists at: http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/lists.html -- Websites: Global Exchange www.globalexchange.org/ftaa Stop FTAA www.stopftaa.org Public Citizen Global Trade Watch www.citizen.org Alliance for Responsible Trade www.art-us.org -- Host a speaker in your community This fall Global Exchange is hosting a nationwide speaking tour: ³Resisting the FTAA and Corporate Globalization: Ecuador¹s Struggle for Human Rights and Environmental Justice² with Jose Encalada, of the Ecuadorian farmers¹ federation CONFEUNASSC-CNC(the National Confederation of Affiliates for Farmer Security) on October 5 - October 14. 2002. Nationwide. Jose Encalada, Director of International Relations for CONFEUNASSC-CNC (the National Confederation of Affiliates for Farmer Security), the most powerful national campesino federation in Ecuador, will tour the United States to talk about Indigenous Rights, Campesino/Farmer Rights, Ecuador's failed economy under IMF/World Bank plans, resistance efforts in Latin America against corporate globalization, and Ecuador's National Campaign Against the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA). Jose¹s presentation will be in Spanish with an English translation (translator provided by Global Exchange), with opportunities for questions and discussion. Jose Encalada has been with CONFEUNASSC-CNC since its inception. His work has included agrarian reform, the campaign to protect the social security system, water issues, food sovereignty, access to land, international solidarity, fighting privatizations, and democratic reform. He is active in National Campaign Against the FTAA, and represented the CONFEUNASSC-CNC in Prague and in the PGA summit in Cochabamba. Before working with the CONFEUNASSC, he worked with a provincial campesino federation in Carchi and as a neighborhood youth organizer in Quito, Ecuador. Please contact the Global Exchange Speakers Bureau at 415-255-7296 or speakers@globalexchang.org. Early next year (2003) Global Exchange will be hosting a Tri National Speaking Tour. Speakers from Canada, United States and Mexico will travel to all three countries to talk about some of the most devastating aspects of NAFTA in the agriculture and labor sector and how NAFTA has increased poverty. You can help this tour reach a wider audience by hosting a speaker in your community. Contact ftaa@globalexchange.org for more information. 2. TRAVEL -- Travel to Ecuador on our Reality Tour October 23 November 3, 2002 While government ministers meet in late October 2002 in Ecuador to discuss the Free Trade Area of the Americas (the extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement to all of Latin America excluding Cuba) civil society will be mobilizing in opposition to corporate globalization. Ecuador is a prime example of failed International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank policies especially with regard to the development of the petroleum industry. In addition, Ecuador has been severely affected by the US Plan Colombia and the escalating conflict in that country. This delegation will travel to ecological zones that are threatened by oil exploration and witness first-hand the devastation caused by unchecked corporate exploitation of natural resources. This delegation will also assess the ecological and social impact of Plan Colombia on the region. For more info see: http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/auto/2002-10-23_FTAATruthConsequences.html Or write to karolo@globalexchange.org 3. ORGANIZE --Action Kits Download Global Exchange's FTAA Action Kits, with tons of information about how you can organise in your community to resist the FTAA. --Pass resolutions and FTAA-free zones in your city Activists around the United States are working with elected officials to pass local resolutions rejecting the FTAA and/or declaring FTAA-free zones. While having no direct bearing on the approval of the FTAA, a resolution denouncing the FTAA will educate people in your town about the threats posed by the "free trade" agenda and help galvanize your community to support the Fair Trade movement. It will demonstrate to your representatives from the US Congress that local opposition to free trade is building. You can go to http://www.globalexchange.org/fasttrack/sampleResolution.html to see the actual resolution passed by the City of Santa Cruz, CA and contact us for organizing kits and tips on how to do this in your neighborhood. 4. CONNECT For all of these events contact ftaa@globalexchange.org for dates and locations, and especially of you want to help us organize an event in your community! For any further information or questions about how to get involved, please contact me at 415 255 7296, or email ftaa@globalexchange.org. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future! And don¹t forget to take positive action! Sincerely, Carleen Pickard FTAA Campaign Coordinator Global Exchange 2017 Mission Street #303, San Francisco, California 94110 T: (415) 255-7296 F: (415) 255-7498 www.globalexchange.org/ftaa