activist media project.los angeles
this is what free trade looks like
the NAFTA fraud in méxico, the failure of the WTO, and the case for global revolt
study guide
overview
of the film
background information
for teachers/discussion leaders
learning objectives
vocabulary
list
reflection questions
group exercises
questions & connections
for further research
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This is what Free Trade Looks Like examines México's experience with NAFTA as a basis for understanding the impacts of other free trade agreements (FTAs), such as the WTO and the FTAA, on developing countries, on farmers, youth, and the poor. The film contextualizes growing resistance to free trade policies. |
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background information for teachers/discussion leaders Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are the latest phase of economic relations between the first world (developed countries or Global North) and third world (postcolonial underdeveloped or "developing" countries, also known as the Global South or the majority world). Many scholars argue that these policies continue the power relations and extractive economic policies put in place under colonial rule and extended through the era of debt-driven export-based development (1950s-) which failed to establish economic independence for the purportedly "postcolonial" third world. In international law, FTAs function as "economic constitutions" against which national, state, and local law can be tested and overruled. In this way, they are seen as a threat to national sovereignty of nations. They overrule environmental law, workers rights, land reform law, nationalization of industries, product safety law, advertising law, and many other kinds of laws. In addition, FTAs (which are enforceable) have no legal relationship with (unenforced) areas of international law such as human rights law, ILO labor conventions, and environmental treaties. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an FTA between the US, México, and Canada which went into effect on January 1, 1994. NAFTA is the most comprehensive FTA currently operating. It contains aspects of Free Trade law which are still under negotiation at the 146-member World Trade Organization (WTO). The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an FTA still under negotiation which would extend NAFTA to all of Latin America and the Caribbean. Implementation of the FTAA would pressure Asian and African countries currently resisting the WTO to submit to G8 (the Group of 8 most economically powerful countries) demands in fear that Latin American exports will gain advantages over theirs.Other regional FTAs are used to jockey in the same way. APEC and CAFTA are used to pressure countries to agree to the FTAA. The terms of most regional FTAs are dictated by G8 powers who aren't even part of the region! The World Trade Organization was established in 1995 after a 7-year negotiation called the Uruguay Round. Like other FTAs, the process by which the WTO was established claims to be democratic but is accused of being highly exclusionary and bullying Global South nations into deals which damage their attempts to establish equity and invest in human development. The process by which FTAs were agreed to is highly contested because multinational corporations had security clearances to participate in writing the agreements while citizens' organizations, labor groups, environmental groups, consumer rights organizations, and civil and human rights groups were locked out. The impacts of FTAs are felt acutely all over the world. The livelihoods of farmers, small businesspeople, and indigenous people are so severely and directly affected that Free Trade is described as a life or death crisis. In addition, the wages and rights of workers are undermined by Free Trade agreements which encourage companies to "race to the bottom", moving manufacturing operations to the latest cheap labor haven. New international alliances have emerged to oppose and disrupt FTAs in very aggressive and direct ways, while also developing alternatives. One of the most powerful alliances is the Vía Campesina, an international movement of over 100 million farmers in 70 nations who point out that small farmers do not need the promised "access to global markets", they need access to their local markets - access which is undermined by subsidized imports sold below the cost of production because their governments are no longer allowed to tariff to protect domestic markets. This film was shot at the 5th WTO Ministerial in Cancún, México in September 2003. This Ministerial, like the 1999 Seattle Ministerial, collapsed when Global South nations refused to agree to policies pushed by the G8 as the G8 countries (particularly the aggressive US) fail to abide by the rules of the WTO themselves! Vía Campesina had a very large presence in Cancún as campesinos (farmers) came long distances (even from Korea) to protest the meetings. You can identify members of Vía in the film by the green kerchiefs they wear tied around their shoulders. Activists from all over the world were also very concerned about the proposed Services Agreement (GATS) which would privatize a raft of public services (including water and education) so that private sector corporations could compete for these markets in postcolonial nations. While proponents of the WTO argue that it is still in its infancy and cannot yet be evaluated, Mexicans argue that they have already seen the devastating effects of such an agreement in ten years of NAFTA. México's experience is a crucial lesson for other postcolonial countries which hope that the WTO will help their countries address poverty. Moreover, activists from other Global South nations argue that FTAs are just another form of the same economic policies forced on their nations through Structural Adjustment Programs imposed as a condition of refinancing their external debts with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. (Even the Bank admits that SAPs are now inversely associated with the "economic growth" they promise.) Economists may see "growing pains", but from the Global South perspective, SAPs and FTAs are a risky experiment with marketization which endangers biodiversity, culture, food security, healthcare systems, small farmers, and sector after sector of sustainable livelihoods. Many Global South activists even call these policies "recolonization". The "movement of movements"
which opposes the WTO and other FTAs with growing solidarity, confidence,
and creativity has clear visions of how to make possible "another
world". At the end of the film, several of these visions are articulated,
including canceling the debts of Global South Nations, regional trade
agreements (without the G8), direct action, and food sovereignty. |
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questions & connections for further research
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research links also see the list of represented organizations and links requested by screening participants Fair Trade Food & Agriculture Issues
Biotech
Maquiladoras/Export
Processing Zones/ NAFTA Structural Adjustment/Drop the Debt Resistance to Globalization/Direct Action Anti-Imperialism |
this study guide was designed by sean maloney with assistance from amory starr. feedback and requests to amp.la