Still unconcerned by NAFTA? THe following extracts are
taken from a cogent and prescient article in the June
1992 edition of CANADIAN DIMENSION magazine. Note who, 
once again, is at centre stage in promoting this
disastrous Agreement, and be warned! 

            
            THE NAFTA SELLOUT

            by BRUCE CAMPBELL
  
In late April The Americas Society held a high powered 
conference in Washington DC to publicly present its 
agenda for a hemispheric free trade zone. Not 
coincidentally, this is identical to President Bush's 
Enterprise for the Americas Initiative; and Bush was at
the conference to restate his commitment to the plan. 
THE AMERICAS SOCIETY, FOUNDED AND HEADED BY DAVID
ROCKEFELLER, IS PERHAPS THE PREMIER TRANSNATIONAL 
CORPORATE CLUB BRINGING TOGETHER BUSINESS ELITES
TO MAP OUT, USUALLY SECLUDED FROM THE PUBLIC EYE, 
THE BROAD CONTOURS OF THEIR STRATEGIES [THE
AMERICAS SOCIETY GAVE BRIAN MULRONEY ITS "MAN
OF THE YEAR" AWARD AFTER HE DELIVERED ON THE 
CANADA - U.S. TRADE DEAL]. Leading the Canadian 
delegation was Tom D'aquino from the BCNl, Mickey 
Cohen, currently head of Molsons, and Marie Josee 
Drouin co-chair of the Mulroney government's 
prosperity agenda.
  The timing was no accident. The negotiations on a 
trilateral free trade deal (NAFTA) are in the final 
critical stage and, as the prototype for a
hemispheric accord, they must not be allowed to founder 
in the face of mounting political opposition in all
three countries. EXHORTING HIS COLLEAGUES TO BE 
"CRUSADERS FOR THE CAUSE", ROCKEFELLER URGED THEM 
TO, "STAY THE COURSE WHEN THE POLITICIANS, UNDER
AN INCREASING BARRAGE OF COMPLAINTS AND INDUCEMENTS 
FROM VARIOUS PRESSURE GROUPS, BEGIN TO WAFFLE."....
  The Dallas draft shows a NAFTA that will extend the 
economic space WITHIN WHICH LARGE CORPORATIONS CAN
MOVE FREELY IN CANADA, AND ELSEWHERE ON THE CONTINENT, 
UNRESTRAINED BY PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY. IT WILL GIVE
THEM ENORMOUS NEW POWER and place further constraints 
on the ability of Canadian governments to shape
industrial policy, manage resources and, indirectly, 
carry out social policy. For a NAFTA to come into 
effect, implementing legislation, new laws and a 
host of amendments to existing laws and regulations, 
must be passed both by parliament and the provincial 
legislatures.
______________________________________

INVESTMENT AND SERVICES
______________________________________  
  Key provisions securing the rights and privileges 
of transnational corporations are found in these 
chapters.They basically reproduce and expand the 
provisions found in the F[ree]T[rade]A[greement]. 
They include: national treatment (that US-owned 
corporations be treated the same by Canadian 
governments as domestically-owned corporations); 
freedom from government-imposed performance
requirements; freedom to repatriate profits etc.; 
freedom fnom discriminatory expropriation and 
adequate compensation, freedom to move top
management, professional and technical personnel 
around at will; provisions ensuring compliance by
sub-national governments; and a general nullification 
and impairment clause pnotecting against loss of
rights or benefits caused by government measures
unanticipated by the terms of this agreement.
  THE U.S. WANTS A "POST-TERMINATION" PROVISION
IN THE INVESTMENT CHAPTER THAT ANTICIPATES THE 
EVENTUALITY OF A CANADIAN CANCELLATION OF THE
AGREEMENT. UNDER THE THE PROPOSAL, INVESTMENTS
EXISTING AT THE TIME OF TERMINATION WILL 
CONTINUE TO BE COVERED BY THIS CHAPTER FOR A
FURTHER 10 YEARS AFTER THE TERMINATION DATE.
THESE PROVISIONS CONSTITUTE THE CORE CORPORATE 
RIGHTS, AND LEAVING THEM INTACT WOULD PLACE A
STRAIT JACKET ON A FUTURE GOVERNMENT THAT, WITH
A MANDATE FROM THE ELECTORATE, WANTED TO 
ABROGATE THE DEAL.
  Both the US and Canada are pushing Mexico to adopt 
FTA provisions preventing minimum requirements for 
foreign ownership and forced divestiture on the basis 
of nationality. Canada has recently given up its
FTA rights of forced divestment in the book publishing 
industry. Under the terms of the FTA these powers
are not recoverable by a future government.
  All the performance requirements prohibited in the 
FTA (which prevent governments from requiring that 
companies fulfill certain commitments as a condition of 
investing in Canada) are reproduced in the NAFTA 
investment chapter. Moreover, Mexico and the US are 
pushing for additional prohibitions, on the ability of 
governments to require companies to transfer technology
and establish world (regional) product mandates as a 
condition of theirinvestment. THESE CONSTITUTE MAJOR
LIMITATIONS ON THE ABILITY OF GOVERNMENTS TO PURSUE 
INDUSTRIAL STRATEGIES... 
  The impact of a NAFTA cannot be overstated. As an 
extension and deepening of the bilateral trade deal
it will intrude in ALL AREAS OF ECONOMIC AND 
POLITICAL LIFE in Canada.
WE KNOW THIS FROM HAVING LIVED WITH IT FOR THE PAST 
THREE YEARS.
   NAFTA will exacerbate downward pressures on wages, 
and result in transfer of production and investment. 
According to CLC economist Andrew Jackson, "to the 
extent that wages fall, the transfer of production
will be less. And to the extent that wages do not fall, 
the transfer of production will be greater."
   Business proponents of free trade perpetuate the myth 
that Canadians don't have to worry about low Mexican wages 
because productivity levels are so low. While this may be 
true for the Mexican economy as a whole, it is a 
distortion of the reality in the Maquiladora, the 
border export zone which is populated almost entirely
by transnational corporations, mainly US owned whose 
plants contain state-of-the-art equipment and
processes allowing high levels of labour productivity 
and massive profits.
    It is important to recall that three quarters of 
what passes for trade in manufactured goods among the
three countries are intra-firm transfers, the movement 
of products within different facilities of the same
transnational corporation. It is very important that we 
understand the implications of this. In the unregulated
continental market anticipated by NAFTA the corporations 
basically decide what gets produced, where and by whom. 
Governments and regulatory regimes in all three 
countries, at all levels end up 'competing' with each 
other to offer the most 'attractive' incentives such 
as low taxes, low environmental and labour standards; 
and workers in all three countries end up competing to 
offer the lowest wages and benefits.
   This is the central ideological underpinning of the 
corporate-political alliance to lay down the rules for 
a new economic order in the hemisphere.

[Bruce Campbell is with the Canadian Centre for Policy 
Alternatives and author of Canadian Dimension's three 
annual assessments of the Canadian-US Free
Trade Agreement].
                                     
                  - o O o -      

NAFTA is NOT good news! November 17th will be your last
chance to STOP it - after that, it's effectively locked
in, unamendable and irremovable.

                  Cheers!

                  John W.