Total failure of FTAA inevitable

EXPERTS from a number of countries announced the inevitable end of the FTAA during the 4th Hemispheric Conference against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, inaugurated yesterday in the presence of Cuban President Fidel Castro.

It will disappear with shame and without glory, affirmed Cuban economist Osvaldo Martínez.

He affirmed that a year of stagnation in negotiations and the strength of social movements highlight the rejection of the planned agreement, which he qualified as a neoliberal monster promoted by the United States.

Even while some submissive governments in the region are scheming to bring about the success of new attempts at domination in Latin America and the Caribbean, the defeat of those plans is inexorably approaching.

Martínez explained that the failure of the FTAA is due to the fact that it is incompatible with national self-determination of the peoples.

The Cuban economist gave the opening address to the forum in Havana, attended by more than 960 delegates from 36 countries.

He affirmed that before the moment of the FTAA’s collapse arrives, its US promoters are directing their efforts towards the approval of bilateral free trade treaties, with stronger doses of neoliberalism.

The current situation of those attempts is also marked by the trade inequalities that the U.S. is trying to impose on the FTAA, as well as mass protests against agricultural subsidies, which are not included in negotiations on the trade agreements.

Regarding that issue, Venezuelan economist Edgardo Lander emphasized its importance for the region’s economies and agriculture – primarily subsistence – which are being affected by an avalanche of US products.

A particular target of criticism was the absence of the foreign debt in all discussions and documents related to the FTAA. In the region, that debt reaches $723 million, and is under constant negotiation under the precepts of the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The latter was the subject of a panel discussion during the forum, which analyzed the need to establish a strategy of struggle to reject that agency’s expansionist and neoliberal intentions.

A number of speakers agreed that a victory against the WTO could be possible via the positive experiences of Latin American countries against the FTAA.

Deborah James of the U.S. and the Hemispheric Social Alliance, stated that during the 10 years of the WTO’s existence, advances have been slow, and she recalled its failed negotiations during its meetings in Seattle and Cancún.

Limiting the WTO’s possibilities, so that it cannot dominate agreements related to the control of agriculture, intellectual property and the privatization of services are goals of this battle, affirmed Pablo Solón, of the Bolivian Movement against the FTAA.

The WTO, an emblematic institution of the neoliberal world economic order, is utilized by the United States so that its mechanisms of domination will prevail in Latin America, under the false pretext of free trade.

Such arguments are necessary to consolidate confronting the WTO before its ministerial meeting, scheduled for December in Hong Kong.

The 4th Hemispheric Conference against the FTAA, which continues until next Saturday, has a special session planned for Friday dedicated to the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), promoted by the governments of Venezuela and Cuba. (PL).