Trade

In this section:
Learn about our Alternative to NAFTA
Learn about RC's History in the Trade Movement
Download a document explaining how the FTAA will affect the U.S. Economy
Read Legislative Testimony on Free Trade of the Americas

Nearly seven years after the United States, Mexico, and Canada ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) large corporations are once again pushing to expand their hold on the world's wealth at the expense of the poor. As you read this President George W. Bush is advocating expanding NAFTA's misery to the entire Western Hemisphere. The proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would expand NAFTA's free trade zone to both North and South America, allowing large corporations unrestricted access to markets while undercutting poor working people, leaving them without jobs or anywhere to turn.

Looking back over the past seven years what exactly has been the legacy of NAFTA? As predicted by many economist and scholars, in the aggregate, NAFTA has hurt poor working people and rural communities while lining the pockets of large corporations. Workers in the United States have lost 766,000 manufacturing jobs when U.S. businesses moved their factories to Mexico for cheaper labor. These jobs have not benefited the Mexican workers either, however. The factory jobs they have obtained have appalling working conditions in overcrowded and unsanitary factory cities that can not provide adequate housing. The only entities benefiting from NAFTA are United States businesses that take advantage of cheap labor and Mexican factory owners that take advantage of the poor individuals by offering jobs that offer a glimmer hope, but in reality go nowhere.

Like NAFTA, the FTAA will only serve the interests of big business throughout the Western Hemisphere while further impoverishing workers and farmers. Workers in the United States will lose even more manufacturing jobs when companies move their manufacturing facilities in search of ever-cheaper labor. U.S. farmers will face increased competition in an already overcrowded market in which prices have continued to drop.

What will the people of South and Central America gain? Their workers will find more jobs but, in factories that pay extremely low wages, without representation by democratic unions, no job security or benefits, and unsafe working conditions. Their farmers also will be faced with exports from the United States driving down the prices which will ultimately force them off of their land because of their inability to compete with agribusiness in the U.S. and other FTAA member countries.

Because of the great significance this trade pact will have on citizens of the United States and of every nation in the Western Hemisphere, there needs to be frank and open debates before Congress on the effects the FTAA. All steps must be taken to ensure that President Bush is not granted "fast track" authority to negotiate this trade pact behind closed doors without the input from those who stand to lose the most.

With input from all concerned parties we can find a more equitable way to increase trade that helps, not hurts, the impoverished people of all countries. The Rural Coalition is not against trade between the United States and other nations. The type of trade the Coalition supports is trade that is cooperative and benefits all parties involved (Click Here to Learn about our Alternative). We support all efforts that serve to stabilize the rural economies in North and South America and allow our counterparts to earn a living from the land. We look forward to developing people-to-people trade relationships that benefit small farmers on both sides of the border. We seek justice in immigration policy and dignity and fairness for all workers in agriculture. Trade agreements should uphold and make these goals more, not less possible.

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