Date: Tue, 25 May 1999

S.O.S., S.O.S. : MAI and WTO preparations advance in Mexico and other Countries

PROPOSAL TO EUROPEAN ORGANIZATIONS AND TO ALL THOSE GROUPS WHICH ARE INVOLVED IN THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE MAI AND THE MILLENNIUM ROUND OF THE WTO.

S.O.S., S.O.S. : MAI AND WTO PREPARATIONS ADVANCE IN MEXICO AND OTHER COUNTRIES.

The recent ratification by the European Parliament (6 May, 1999) of the Global Agreement on Free Trade, Political Partnership and Co-operation between the countries of the European Union and Mexico, and its appended Agreement on Trade and matters related to trade (the Interim Agreement), containing as they do a clone of the MAI and the themes of the next WTO, mean an advance fro the corporate finance and trade agenda.

These agreements were passed without transparency and with a lack of information to the public in European and in Mexico. They were denounced by the coalition of organisations known as "Mexican Citizens on the European Union," by a range of international human rights, labour, environmental, and human rights organisations (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, International Federation of Human Rights, NGOs-Liaison to the European Community, and the European Environmental Bureau). These are trade and finance agreements that lack obligatory mechanisms to guarantee respect for labour rights, human rights, rights of indigenous people, social rights and environmental standards. They include the central issues of the MAI, contents of NAFTA, and the themes of liberalisation of agriculture, forestry, intellectual property rights and governmental procurement that may be negotiated in the framework of the WTO.

This model of a Free Trade Agreement (a "NAFTA with the EU"), dressed up with a "democracy clause" which with rhetoric says it seeks to defend human rights and democracy, is the proposal that the European Union corporations may present to Latin American heads of state in the "First Latin America European Co-operation Summit," to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the end of June. It likely embraces the fundamental aspects of what the Council of the European Union would present as well to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations which are part of the Lomé Agreement.

The European Union-Mexico agreement, ratified to date by the parliaments of at least eight EU member countries, is not known by many citizens' organisations or even parliamentarians. It includes guarantees for the liberalisation of the flows of capital (including speculative flows), guarantees against nationalisation, and external dispute resolution tribunals; in other words, it provides extreme guarantees to capital and obligations to states. It contains as well liberalisation measures for markets in agriculture, forestry, government procurement, and intellectual property rights that go beyond the commitments achieved in the Uruguay round and the WTO.

The evident dangers which hundreds of civil organisations have denounced with respect to the MAI and the Millennium, Round are being filtered beneath the door in two ways: the bilateral agreements on trade and investment such as this Mexico-European Union Agreement, as well as through Bilateral Investment Agreements (on promotion and reciprocal protection of investments). We must denounce them before they are expanded to all of Latin America and the ACP countries.

Mexican civil organisations launch a global alert to call on our civil counterpart organisations to put a stop to these actions that our governments are taking against the interests of our peoples.

1. We propose that, together with reinforcing the global actions against the MAI and the Millennium Round, we show our opposition to these kinds of bilateral agreements which are preparing the way for the corporate agenda from our countries and in the name of our own interests. We seek to strengthen such actions as those in favour of the ATTAC proposal that we support as well.
2. We call on all civil organisations, and especially our European counterparts, to send letters to their parliamentarians indicating their concern with respect to this agreement, and in the cases of those parliaments that have not yet ratified the agreement, ask that they not ratify it. In the same way, we ask that the letters be sent with copies of documents by such organisations as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, International Federation of Human Rights, NGOs-Liaison to the European Community, and the European Environmental Bureau.
3. We ask that all European organisations demand transparency from their governments and parliamentarians, as well as precise information about the negotiations which are being conducted with the countries of Latin America and the ACP, along with public discussion about their contents.

Signed:

Mexican Citizens on the European Union (Ciudadan@s de México ante la Unión Europea.)
May 1999

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