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The Free Trade Area of the Americas: Hemispheric Forest Threat
What is the Free Trade Area of the Americas? The Free Trade Area of
theAmericas (FTAA) is a free trade and investment agreement being
negotiatedbetween the governments of North, Central and South America
and the Caribbean.It is modeled after the North American Free Agreement
(NAFTA) between NorthAmerica, Canada and Mexico.
Negotiations are scheduled for completion in 2005. However,
negotiators claimto be ahead of schedule and expect that a draft text
will be completed by theend of this year. Presidential candidates George
Bush and Al Gore have expressedplans to push swiftly ahead with the
FTAA upon taking office.
The goal of the FTAA is to create a free trade and investment zone
thatextends from northern Canada to the southern tip of Chile. As with
NAFTA,"free trade and investment" means reducing government regulations
oncorporations, opening markets to foreign competition and expanding
trade in allproducts, including forest products. In fact, it appears
that the FTAA willinclude a "Global Free Logging Agreement" like that
proposed and thusfar defeated at the World Trade Organization.
We can use NAFTA as a model to predict the impact of the FTAA on
forests.After signing NAFTA, all three NAFTA countries lowered
protections for forestsand biodiversity; fifteen U.S. forest product
companies set up new operations inMexico taking advantage of lower
environmental and labor safeguards; and oneU.S. corporation, Boise
Cascade, has been linked to extreme human rights abusesagainst forest
protection activists in Mexico. Boise Cascade has also beenblocked in
its plans to open the world's largest chip mill in the heart ofChile's
endangered rainforests by Chilean and U.S. citizen opposition.
However,the FTAA could be the silver bullet the company needs to push
their plans tocompletion.
The FTAA would promote unbridled hemisphere-wide consumption of
forestproducts without a single forest or biodiversity safeguard. U.S.
negotiatorsexpect that the FTAA will also include investment
liberalization initiativeslike those included in NAFTA and the ill-fated
Multilateral Agreement onInvestment (MAI) that allow corporations to
sue governments if environmentallaws cause their properties to lose
economic value.
A "Global Free Logging Agreement" in the FTAA?
A Global Free Logging Agreement Would:
(A) 1. Eliminate tariffs on forest products, which would
2. Increase consumption of forest products, which would
3. Increase production of forest products, which would
4. Increase unsustainable logging, which would
5. Further decimate the world's endangered native forests.
(B) 1. Threaten forest protections by labeling them "non-tariff trade barriers," which could
2. Threaten forest protections such as recycled content and
eco-labeling laws that reduce consumption and encourage sustainable
forestry practices, which would
3. Tie the hands of people reforming current unsustainable practices, whichwould
4. Further decimate the world's endangered native forests, which would
5. Cause global deforestation and loss of biodiversity.
The Clinton Administration has spear-headed negotiations at the World
TradeOrganization (WTO) on a proposal dubbed by forest advocates as the
"GlobalFree Logging Agreement (GFLA)." After losing its bid (for now)
to have theGFLA at the WTO, the Administration appears to have set its
sites on the FreeTrade Area of the Americas (FTAA) as a new venue to
push for the proposal whichthreatens forests and biodiversity.
In fact, a representative of the United States Trade Representative's
officeconfirmed that the FTAA Market Access Negotiating Group is
negotiating tariffelimination and non-tariff trade barrier (|NTB)
removal for forest products.NTBs are forest and species protections that
are argued to interfere with freetrade.
Tariff elimination could increase the consumption of forest products,
whilethe elimination of NTBs could threaten existing and future forest
protectionlaws and initiatives. Current logging practices have decimated
the world'sforests. An increase in such unsustainable practices caused
by the GFLA willhasten the deforestation of the world's native forests.
With a GFLA, U.S. laws designed to protect forests, the environment
and smalllocally owned mills can be challenged under the FTAA as NTBs.
If challenged anddefeated, these laws would have to be eliminated or the
U.S. would face costlytrade sanctions. The record of trade agreements
vs. the environment thus farproves that when faced with a trade-off
between "free trade" andenvironmental protection -- the environment
always losses. The GFLA will putthese laws are greater risk through the
FTAA.
Forest protections that could be threatened include a ban on the
export ofraw logs from federal and most state lands to protect small
local mills andreduce logging; federal and state green procurement laws
such as those requiringthe use of recycled paper; eco-labeling and
certification laws used to identifyenvironmentally friendly products
such as sustainably harvested wood; and lawsto protect against invasive
species invasions.
What You Can Do
Learn more and get involved in the campaign to protect forests
frominternational trade and investment agreements such as the FTAA by
contacting American Lands Alliance. You can also join
American Lands and other activists from around the world in Quebec,
Canada, April 20-22, 2001, for protest, education and organizing
eventsat the Summit of the Americas when governments meet to finalize
the FTAA.
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