by Roedy Green ©1996-2009 Canadian Mind Products
“Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.”
~ Jerry Garcia (born: 1942-08-01 died: 1995-08-09 at age: 53)
Introduction
Free Trade sounds like a heck of an idea. Lower tariffs, level the playing field between rich and poor nations, increase
trade. Why then are so many people incoherent with rage over the idea? These protesters include the:
- environmentalists
- consumer advocates
- trade unionists
- civil rights advocates
What are they so upset about?
The Catch
In 1860, free trade meant lowering the tariffs on goods transported across national borders.
Today the term used in the context of the WTO (World Trade
Organination) and FTAA (Free Trade
Area of the Americas) means much more. It means
prohibiting anything that would interfere with international trade. Multinational corporations want uniform global
regulations for every aspect of their business dealings. Isn’t that a good thing? What is happening is a transfer
of power from the individual nation states to multinational corporations. The catch is a corporation is not democratic.
A corporation is not responsible to the citizens as a whole, just to its shareholders. A corporation has no constitution,
no ethics unless you count Ferengiism
as a ethical system. A corporation’s sole purpose is to make money. Let’s have a look at what happens when
you make profitable international trade your number one priority.
Environmental Problems
Corporate think is very short term. What counts is the next quarter’s profits. Conserving natural resources for
future generations just does not fit into a balance sheet. Clean water and air, are simply unnecessary expenses. When
Canada, for example, tried to ban a carginogenic gasoline additive, the global free trade associations ruled that this
was an unfair restraint of trade. The WTO argued what Canada was really doing was favouring is own clean gasoline.
Canada was forced to accept carginogenic gasoline. Canada would be forced to accept genetically engineered and
irradiated food. Canada would lose control which pesticides are acceptable. Canada would lose the ability to regulate
ozone-destroying emissions or greenhouse gases.
Free trade pushes all countries to the lowest common denominator in terms of environmental awareness.
Safety Problems
Let us say that Sweden decided to mandate side air bags and a 30 MPH crash safety test. The free trade associations
could block them from doing that. The WTO would likely argue what Sweden is actually doing is attempting to favour
locally manufactured automobiles.
Free trade wants all workers to be interchangeable. Canada would be forced to accept doctors accredited in India or
Africa without further training. The WTO would argue that further training is prejudice.
Canada’s strict gun laws would have to go, because they are an unfair restraint on sales of American handguns.
Sovereignty Problems
The new rules allow corporations to sue countries if those countries do anything that would cause them to make
less profit. For example, if Canada refused to sell bulk water to a Hong Kong company, that company could sue Canada for
the amount of the lost profit. Free trade means roughly: everything is for sale and everything must be sold to the
highest bidder.
Socialism
Canada has a popular publicly funded universal medical insurance scheme. This would have to go. The FTAA would argue it
is an an unfair tax upon corporations, and an unfair perk to Canadian citizens.
The FTAA would encourage privatilsation of schools, universities, medical care, hospitals, libraries, museums, prisons,
transportation, broadcasting, and many other services previously provided or regulated by communities and governments.
National Identity
Small countries are not permitted to subsidise local authors and magazine publishers. Publishers must compete toe to toe
with imports from large nations such as the USA. Yet, local authors, magazines and artists are necessary to maintain a
distinct national identity. The WTO would argue subsidising local authors is unfair to authors in other countries.
Self Sufficiency
Japan wants to grow enough rice in Japan itself so that in the event of an emergency, such as a Chinese naval blockade,
they could still get by. Obviously rice can be grown more cheaply outside Japan. Yet free trade rules prohibit Japan
from offering any subsidies to local farmers. Free trade rules force Japan to rely on imported rice.
The End of Unions
A union cannot apply any pressure when the employer can freely hire workers or buy goods on the international market at
third world prices. Only a global union would have any clout. The corporations are multi-national but the unions are
national. This tips the balance of power drastically in favour of the corporations. We end up with children in Pakistan
making shoes for Nike at pennies an hour. Unions cannot compete with the third world countries willing to work for slave
wages. Work conditions in both first and third world countries drop to the lowest common denominator. No one benefits
but the multinational employers.
Civil Rights
Partly because Free Trade has weakened unions, it has given repressive governments even more power to suppress free
speech. Even in the USA some unprecendented gagging has occurred concerning free trade debate.
The Suzuki Objections
David Suzuki is Canada’s best known scientist. He is geneticist who for decades has host the CBC science program The
Nature of Things. He pointed out that economic growth is not a good thing, at least not while it simply
means faster consumption of non-renewable resources and faster rates of polluting the environment. The growth spiral we
are on may make sense economically, but it is doomed ecologically. We are as blind as lemmings, refusing to notice the
signs of imminent ecological collapse caused by this accelerating economic growth. Runaway growth in nature is called cancer.
The only indefinitely sustainable economy is a closed system that recycles everything and that does not pollute.
Multinational corporations are blind to this. All they can see the next quarter profit.
Suzuki also points out that Canada was economically better off before free trade. We were able to grow all our own food
and manufacture all our own goods locally. Now, the main thing we export is jobs and trained workers attracted by the
higher salaries to the south.
The WTO and FTAA appear to consider profit as the only legitimate criterion for decision making. This view is short
sighted. Clearly economics are a major factor in decision making, but it is folly to make them them the only
consideration.
The Cohen Objection
Any System
Any system you contrive without us
will be brought down
We warned you before
and nothing that you build has stood
Hear it as you lean over your blueprint
Hear it as you roll up your sleeve
Hear it once again
Any system you contrive without us
will be brought down
You have your drugs
You have your guns
You have your Pyramids your Pentagons
With all your grass and bullets
you cannot hunt us any more
All that we disclose of ourselves forever
is this warning
Nothing that you built has stood
Any system you contrive without us
will be brought down
~ Leonard Cohen (born: 1934-09-21 age: 74)
reproduced without permission.
The Deadbeat Index
In a fair world trade system, you would get paid the same per hour for equally onerous work no matter where on earth you
did the work. You would get paid more for climbing in sewers, for doing a job that only a few people can do, or for
doing a job that takes long preparation, such as being a doctor.
How is the world organised now? Americans get paid perhaps over an order of magnitude times more for the same work as
people in the poorest countries. Who is ripping off whom? That disparity is only possible when America takes unfair
advantage of her economic and military might. People don’t voluntarily put up with that degree of disparity. All
the countries in the west take unfair advantage of the third world, not just America. It is just that America is most
blatant because she is the most powerful.
Who is the deadbeat? I suggest creating a deadbeat index. By definition Americans have index 1. People paid more on
average for equal work than Americans would have a deadbeat index greater than one. People paid less on average for
equal work than Americans would have a deadbeat index less than one, perhaps as low as 0.025. In a fair world, everyone
would have the same deadbeat index, namely 1.0. The index is cleverly defined so that America has already hit perfection.
It is time to bring the rest of the world into alignment.
Of course, it is a good thing if everyone can get paid more for less work, including Americans. It is only taking more
than your fair share of the pie that makes you a deadbeat. Making the pie bigger (producing more with less labour) does
not make you a deadbeat.
Belling the Cat
World trade is working right now for the benefit of large multinationals. Something needs to be done to reign them in.
National governments can’t seem to do it. Perhaps an international government could. On the other hand, such an
international government could easily become the pawn of the multinationals to consolidate their power, much as the
corporations have taken over the Bush administration of the United States.
An Airplane Flying Through A Building
These are awe inspiring images. America stabs herself repeatedly in the heart, watching them over and over. America’s
unconscious imagines nearly all of America has been destroyed. It is terrifying to see your enemies (world traders)
smitten so dramatically. Even though the WTO has no formal links with the World Trade Building, I have been queasy with
fear and guilt. I wanted the WTO destroyed or reformed, but non-violently. I would have preferred a dramatic, humorous
and original approach. To put the carnage in perspective, flaws in the global economic system kills 24 thousand people
quietly every day through hunger and disease. Some of that may stop after this wakeup call.
In Lord of the Rings, there are a tree people called the Ents who are slow to anger, but once enraged, demolish their
enemies. It was as if the entire planet had had enough of the WTO and and wanted that annoying bee sting plucked from
its butt. The idea was resonating in the planetary mind, and the terrorists acted it out. The psychic tension in the
days prior was unbearable. I imagine that even a Joshua would have demolished the World Trade Center under these
conditions, simply by blowing his trumpet.
Books
Learning More
Unfortunately the literature opposing FTTA mostly falls into two camps, the dull and the shrill. You usually have to
wade through mountains of rhetoric to get to the meat.
Summary
Prior to the airline crash into the World Trade Center, you could watch CNN for a 24 hours day and learn not a thing
about what the fuss about world trade was over. All you saw were shots of firehoses. Imagine if Martin Luther King’s
marches had been given this same silent treatment. The Internet changes everything. You can’t keep people in the
dark and feed them bullshit any more, unless, of course, they want to be keep in the dark and fed bullshit.
Boycott_Nike
a company that exploits third world workers.
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