Letter From Toronto By Opiyo Oloya

Apr 25, 2001

Dear Mr President --While there are huge potential benefits for rich and powerful nations like the US, there are far too many shortcomings for poor AS you know, 34 leaders of the Americas spent last weekend here in Quebec City discussing a Free Trade Zone that would include all the nations in the western hemisphere, ranging from the tiny nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis (population 45, 000) to Brazil (population 170 million. To be ratified by 2005, the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would create a market with a total population of 800 million citizens who generate $17 trillion worth of good and services every year. At least on paper, freeing up trade among these nations could mean prosperity for everyone. But, while there are huge potential benefits for rich and powerful nations like United States, Canada and Mexico, there are far too many shortcomings for poor nations like Haiti ($1.6 billion debt), Bolivia ($10.3 billion debt), Brazil (317.5 billion debt) and so forth. This ugly underbelly of globalisation was highlighted by the huge protests outside the summit walls in Quebec City where thousands of protesters from as far away as Europe, Asia, and Latin America, denounced the culture of profits, which ignores social conditions such as poverty in developing nations. And if there was any doubt that this summit was about profits, US President George Bush repeated that the FTAA should "impose market forces on the poor to help solve poverty". Now, how does the creation of a free-trade zone in the Americas affect emerging nations like Uganda, and why should you be concerned about what happened in Quebec City? For starters, the very notion of a free-trade zone in the Americas means that everyone else will be on the outside looking in. However, while European nations, using the mighty EEC as battering ram, will be able to work out something for themselves, weak and disunited African countries will be left at the mercy of the industrial juggernauts. African nations that have worked hard to improve the quality of products for export (for example, South African wine and fruits, Uganda's coffee, Kenya's tea et cetera), will be further marginalised because they lack real clout to negotiate favourable trade terms. In this scenario, high-grade Uganda's coffee will rot in warehouses while low-grade Brazilian coffee fetches high price in the New World market. Furthermore, the real threat for African nations was contained in the so-called democracy clause, which came into effect at the conclusion of the summit last Sunday. This dubious pact calls for suspending the benefits of free-trade zone from any country that moves into a dictatorship. While this currently applies only to the 34 nations of the Americas, it could become the global criteria for deciding who gets in and who stays out of the marketplace. For example, notably missing from the summit was Cuban strongman Fidel Castro who was not invited because he is not, in the word of US President George W. Bush, "democratically elected". Yet, Bush shared the same room with Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide whose recent return to power has been marked by electoral violence and widespread irregularities. Moreover, who can forget that the USA was behind the Chilean overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in the late 1970s, and attempted overthrow of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s? When this notion of democracy is extended to Africa as a pre-condition for membership in the new world market, most countries will be excluded outright, while Uganda will be on the borderline of elimination. Divided and in chaos, African countries will be easy picking for the free-trade vultures whose only purpose is to clean the bones bare. That's exactly what happened to a small town in the Mexican State of San Luis Potosi. In this particular instance, taking advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a US firm called Metalclad that deals in hazardous wastes bought an abandoned dumpsite near the Mexican town. The idea was to expand the site and haul in toxic material from the US to be deposited in the area. The neighbourhood citizens, concerned about the potential for environmental disaster, cried foul and went up in arms to stop their town from becoming the dumping ground of deadly chemicals. When the government of Mexico intervened in support of its citizens, the firm Metalclad sued under chapter 11 of the North America Free Trade Agreement for "damage to its profit margins." Apparently, under this chapter, US companies have free access to Mexico including dumpsites for toxic waste. A trade panel that met in Washington agreed that Metalclad was right and the people of Mexico wrong. Never mind that it's the Mexicans who have to live with the dumpsite for generations to come. So why am I telling you all this? Mr President, my point is this: The barbarians are at the gate. As a strong proponent of regional and continental trade and cooperation, you have a unique ability of using your current mandate to rally African leaders to circle the wagon against what is an inevitable global onslaught by powerful nations eager to dominate little ones like Uganda. United, African nations will be a powerful force to contend with in any future global free-market negotiations. Disunited? Well, you get the picture. Ends

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