NAFTA expansion could be signed in 10 days

The Bush administration has been moving quickly and quietly for the past 10 months to "negotiate" a "free" trade agreement with five nations of Central America in order to regain momentum toward the hemisphere wide FTAA. The Central American Free Trade Area (CAFTA) is to be completed during the final round of negotiations in Washington, D.C. the week of December 8-12, 2003.

This is the same faux-free trade agreement as NAFTA.

CAFTA would lead to further privatization of social services, decreasing public access to basic services and giving corporations more money and control.

It would allow corporations to sue governments over any law that would protect national interest by diminishing private profit, including laws that protect consumers, communities, labor, and the environment, because these would be barriers to economic benefits for Northern countries. This eliminates the democratic rights of people and communities to determine how their government regulates relations with corporations. [If you think this is hype, look into the $970 million lawsuit under NAFTA against the United States by Canadian corporation Methanex. Why did they sue? Because California decided to ban MTBE, the gasoline additive which has been poisoning ground water, and Methanex is a big supplier.]

Under NAFTA, the United States has lost jobs and poverty has increased in Mexico. Small scale Mexican farmers have been driven into penury.

The coalition against CAFTA (see partial list below) is calling for local actions during the week of December 8-12, to express opposition to this agreement. CAFTA may go to a vote in Congress this spring, so the office of your member of Congress is a good target for a local action.

Sponsored by the Stop CAFTA Coalition: Quixote Center, NISGUA, CISPES, Share Foundation, US El Salvador Sister Cities, Witness for Peace, Nicaragua Network, Campaign for Labor Rights, Citizen Trade Campaign, and more.

http://www.stopcafta.org
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/12/01/6752761
http://www.cispes.org/english/Campaign_Against_CAFTA_FTAA/

=================================================================
Example: The Planned Action at the Negotiations in Maryland / D.C.
=================================================================

TUESDAY DECEMBER 9, 2003, NONVIOLENT ANTI-CAFTA AIR FORCE AND NOISE ACTION

On Tuesday, December 9, 2003, the 11th anniversary of the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Maryland Action Collective is calling for a Nonviolent Anti-CAFTA Air Force and Noise Action outside the final round of planning meetings for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

The U.S. trade representatives plan to use CAFTA to spread NAFTA's devastation to Central America. They lost in the WTO meetings in Cancun; they had to settle for FTAA Lite in Miami, which effectively put the Free Trade Area of the Americas(FTAA) on hold; and now they are turning their focus to CAFTA and bilateral trade agreements in order to isolate and weaken opposition to the U.S.'s version of FTAA.

If they succeed in bullying countries to rally behind their neoliberal, neocolonial trade plans, they will revisit FTAA and make it into the "NAFTA on steroids" they originally threatened us with. YA BASTA!

G21 delegates who walked out of the WTO meetings in Cancun and caused its collapse said that U.S. trade reps hold one-on-one meetings with them, during which they bully them and make them feel stupid because they oppose the U.S. trade agenda.

They said one thing that kept them strong in those meetings was hearing the sound of the protests outside in the streets. They knew the world was behind them. The U.S. plans to isolate these reps with CAFTA, but we can't let it happen.

Let your opposition to CAFTA and the FTAA be heard loud and clear! Bring your noise makers and your paper airplanes as the Nonviolent Anti-CAFTA Air Force metaphorically lays siege to the U.S.'s Central American Free Trade Agreement.
See also:
http://www.stopcafta.org
http://www.cispes.org/english/Campaign_Against_CAFTA_FTAA/