Greetings,

NIHAC members have been concerned about the health effects of trade
agreements for some time - one of our first programs was on the effects
of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment several years ago.

The current trade agreement in the works is described below. Please send
your comments - if any - about the possibility of NIHAC signing on to the
letter.

Thanks!

Mary Anne




Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 16:00:00 -0400
From: Theresa Polk <tpolk@...>
To: ctcinfo@...
Subject: [CTCinfo] Anti-CAFTA sign-on letter to members of Congress

September 15, 2004

Friends,

Below is an organizational sign-on letter to members of Congress rejecting
the trade agreement between the United States, the Dominican Republic, and
Central America (now know as the DR-CAFTA.) This letter was initiated
because of both the urgency of a possible lame-duck congressional vote on
the DR-CAFTA in November, and indications by Democratic presidential
Candidate John Kerry that he would review and likely re-negotiate the
labor and environmental sections of CAFTA if elected. The groups working
in the Stop CAFTA Coalition, together with our allies in Central America,
are clear about rejecting CAFTA in any form, as our critique goes beyond
the environmental and labor chapters. This letter, which is loosely based
on the declaration of the 4th Mesoamerican Forum in San Salvador, reflects
those concerns.

The initial deadline for signers is October 8, as we hope to present the
letter at a press conference in Washington DC at the time of a
region-wide, Central American day of action against CAFTA on October 12.
We then plan to continue soliciting signatures until mid-November and
utilize the letter at that point to pressure Representatives during a
possible lame-duck session.

We encourage both local and national organizations to sign on. Send the
names of those groups to Tom Ricker at the Quixote Center:
tomr@... .

***Please distribute widely***

Thanks,

Burke


Dear Member of Congress,

We are writing to express our opposition to the US-Dominican
Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The future of
this agreement, it seems, will be determined by the outcome of the
November election. Much of the Democratic leadership in Congress, and
Democratic Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry have taken the
position that the current accord is not acceptable because of inadequate
enforcement mechanisms for worker rights and environmental protection.
Senator Kerry has committed to re-negotiate the provisions of the accord
regarding these issues. While we share these concerns, we would like to
make clear that any effort to re-negotiate CAFTA which only address these
two issues, without dealing with the numerous other flaws in the
agreement, would result in a CAFTA that we could not support. The
agreement is based on a fundamentally flawed model, and should be rejected
outright; not only for its disastrous consequences for labor and
environmental issues, but also for the harm it would do to farmers,
consumers, indigenous peoples, as well as the detrimental effect it would
have on development and democracy in the region, access to essential
medicines and the provision of essential public services such as
healthcare, education and water.

We believe CAFTA will:

Have negative effects on workers, small farmers, and immigrant
communities in the United States;

We know that poor communities in the United States are most harmed by the
corrosive effects of free trade. We know that free trade leads to massive
job loss in the U.S. as corporations continue to outsource and move
factories to countries with the cheapest wages. Unions in the U.S. have
opposed CAFTA and the FTAA because of the effects that these agreements
have on workers. We know that the loss of family farms in the U.S. has
accelerated under liberalized trade rules since 1994. Family farm
associations in the U.S. oppose CAFTA precisely because it furthers the
same damaging policies.

Bankrupt millions of small farmers and deprive the people of Central
America and the Dominican Republic of the ability to grow their own food;

We know that in the past 10 years 1.5 million small farmers in Mexico have
lost their land, as dumping from large multinationals have depressed
prices of corn and other grains. And yet, the price of food has not gone
down. Indeed, the same multinationals that use their market dominance to
lower corn prices own controlling interests in companies such as Maseca
that overcharge for corn based products such as tortillas. While the
price of food has gone up in Mexico, the country has become a net importer
of food and grains.

Destroy small businesses, making them prey to large national and
transnational corporations;

We know that in just the first three years after NAFTA went into effect
that twenty-eight thousand small businesses were forced to close in
Mexico. The "Walmartization" of the Mexican economy continues; Wal-Mart
is currently the largest private employer in Mexico. As a result of the
closing of small businesses unemployment and poverty have increased.
Indeed, the minimum wage in Mexico has fallen 25% since NAFTA was
implemented.

Particularly hurt women who endure poverty wages and abusive treatment in
the maquila sectors;

We know that in the maquila sector of Central America and the Dominican
Republic women are consistently the targets of sexual abuse, humiliation,
and are denied access to basic health services. We know that wages are so
low, they rarely meet mandatory minimums in each country. We know that
when women attempt to organize to defend their rights, they are fired. We
know that CAFTA contains no provision that will ameliorate this situation,
and will in fact remove what limited mechanisms currently exist under U.S.
General System of Preferences trade law to address the ongoing crisis. We
know that in 10 years since NAFTA passed, women in Mexico have faced the
same situation, and that the supposedly stronger labor provisions in
NAFTA's labor side agreement have never been enforced.

Accelerate the privatization of essential public services, making those
resources and services unaffordable;

We know that access to essential services is determined by the price of
those services and the availability of infrastructure to deliver them. We
know that following years of forced privatization in Central America and
the Dominican Republic, prices have gone up, and infrastructure continues
to deteriorate. We know that, under CAFTA, additional service sectors
such as water and health will be opened further to privatization. We know
that life is not possible without access to water, and we do not accept
that proposition that health care should only be available to those who
can afford it. We know that there is not single example of privatization
in Central America or the Dominican Republic that resulted in expanded
access to essential services.

Increase emigration to the United States of people who can not make a
living in their home countries;

We know that migration from Mexico doubled in the period from 1994-2000.
This sad reality is the direct result of liberalization policies that have
destroyed large segments of the rural economy and small businesses. We
know that in Central America and the Dominican Republic there is already a
crisis of unemployment that has resulted from liberalization policies, and
that CAFTA will make these harmful policies permanent.

Subject natural resources and the very seeds used to plant food to
patents by large foreign companies;

We know that Central America is one of the most deforested regions in the
world. We know that mining companies pollute ground water, and destroy
ecosystems and livelihoods in Central America and the Dominican Republic
with impunity already. We know that the genetic heritage of domestic seed
strains in the region are already under attack through official seed
exchange, and other U.S. supported programs. We know that the further
extension of patent rights to natural resources will reduce the access of
Central Americans and Dominicans to the most fundamental building blocks
of sustainable community life.

Prevent the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic from
forming industrial policies that would lead to real development.

Under CAFTA, governments cannot require investors to use a certain level
of domestic content (of locally produced raw materials) in the goods
produced in their countries or require investors to transfer technology or
productions processes to local citizens. Because of these and other
measures, the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic, under
CAFTA, would be destined to remain at on the bottom rung of the
development ladder.

Cripple the ability of Governments to insist on national health, safety,
environmental and labor protections for our citizens.

We know that in the ten years since NAFTA went into effect that
corporations have challenged the enforcement of existing laws and/or the
implementation of new public interest laws 30 times under NAFTA's infamous
Chapter 11 investment provisions. We know that the trade panels that
review these cases are not accountable to the public. We know that CAFTA
contains the same provisions that would allow companies to challenge
public interest laws by seeking damages should these laws be enforced. We
know that CAFTA actually expands the definition of investment even more
broadly, thus ensuring many more cases.

Restrict access to affordable medicines for those who need them most.

We know that Central America is one of the impoverished regions in the
world and that access to basic medicines is essential for survival. We
know that U.S. pharmaceutical companies constitute the most profitable
sector of the U.S. economy - under current trade rules. We know that
CAFTA will restrict access to generic medicines by forcing governments to
recognize and extend patent rights to U.S. pharmaceutical companies beyond
those requirements already in place through the World Trade Organization.
We know that exceptions granted to impoverished countries under WTO
intellectual property rights rules will be superceded by CAFTA for Central
American countries and the Dominican Republic. We know that prices for
medicines will increase as a result, and thus access to basic medicines
will be reduced. We know that many more people will die from preventable
diseases as a result.


We ask that all members of Congress recognize the potential devastation
that CAFTA holds in store for the people of Central America and the
Dominican Republic. We ask that all members of Congress recognize that
the further loss of jobs and small farms in the United States that will
result from CAFTA is further proof of a failed trade policy agenda. We
ask all members of Congress to recognize that the further expansion of
rights to transnational corporations is not a path to development for
Central America or the Dominican Republic, and erodes the very basis of
democracy for all of us. Before we can move forward in a positive
direction, with trade policies that address the vast disparities between
the United States and the other countries included in CAFTA, Congress must
vote "No" on CAFTA.

Signed: