NAFTA Drama

Forget the Real Housewives of Atlanta - the real drama is going down this week south of the border, where President Obama is meeting with Mexico's Felipe Calderon and Canadian Stephen Harper.

NAFTA was such a great idea that I thought I would give a wrap up of what's really going on.

From Canada Country Guide:

...Hit hard by low prices for their crops, many Mexican farm families have been forced to relocate to large cities or find work at border-town maquiladoras (factories using low-cost labour to make cheap goods for export to the U.S. and elsewhere), the NFU said.

Forced off the land into major urban areas, Mexico's farmers find these cities to be "increasingly lawless and dangerous" due to rising organized crime spurred by poverty and desperation, the NFU said.

"Many Mexicans are now trying to escape. Some are coming here. We need to connect the dots. Many of the Mexicans coming to Canada are refugees from NAFTA," the NFU's Saskatoon-based international co-ordinator Martha Robbins said in the group's release.

What's ironic, Robbins said, is that "as we are forcing open Mexican borders to our products, we are closing our borders to a significant portion of the Mexican people." ...

What about food safety?

From Foreign Policy in Focus:

...The abject failure of NAFTA and its SPP offshoot to bring "security and prosperity" to North America is clear with the economic, environmental, and social crises now affecting this region and much of the world. Unemployment is high, global warming is escalating, and the need to transition away from carbon-intensive energy sources is irrefutable. Multiple food and consumer product safety scandals, notably the recent swine flu epidemic that has been linked to poorly regulated meat processing plants that have spread throughout Mexico since NAFTA came into effect, have called the bluff of business lobbies seeking further deregulation. So has the financial crisis — which resulted from unregulated trade in novel financial products totally detached from the real economy...

Leave it up to lobbyists to spread the wealth of NAFTA to the rest of the world.

From Eyes on Trade:

Reuters reported on Wednesday that the leaders of six major U.S. business groups have called for President Barack Obama to back speedy passage of NAFTA-style “free trade” agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. Wisely, the president has yet to send Congress any of the bilateral trade deals negotiated by former president George W. Bush with the three nations. In addition to pressing for passage of the three pending trade agreements, the groups urged Obama to pursue “major market-opening agreements with the Asia-Pacific and beyond,” essentially advocating for even more NAFTA-style FTAs.

In a letter to the president, the associations acknowledged that trade agreements can ship jobs overseas, and stated that "[T]rade agreements can have adverse effects on specific industries, workers and communities…”. Actually, this is true, and Obama knows it. On the campaign trail, President Obama repeatedly expressed opposition to NAFTA and promised to usher in an era of U.S. trade policy that would require respect for labor rights, environmental standards, and human rights. The Colombia FTA is especially controversial due to the repressive regime of President Álvaro Uribe. Colombia has a longstanding and egregious record of violations of labor and human rights, especially with regard to those of its indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples...

Oh, yeah, no love between Colombia and Venezuela these days either.

From BBC News:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused Colombia of carrying out a military incursion into Venezuela.

Mr Chavez said Colombian soldiers had recently been seen crossing the Orinoco river, which forms part of the border, and entering Venezuelan territory.

He said the incursion - which Colombia denies happened - was a "provocation".

South American leaders are gathering in Ecuador for a summit which is set to discuss Colombia's planned accord to allow the US use of its military bases.

Mr Chavez has been embroiled in a diplomatic row with his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, since news of the plan emerged.

"The threat against us is growing," he said. "I call on the people and the armed forces - let's go, ready for combat!"

There goes the neighborhood...