Dr. Susan Aaronson, Senior Fellow, National Policy Association - April 17, 2001
The Summit of the Americas, to be held April 20-22 in Quebec, will produce a radical document. This is the first time a trade ministerial has been integrated into a discussion about the relationship between economic growth and democracy. The FTAA will also have another "first." The preamble to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas will include language calling on corporations to be responsible global citizens everywhere they operate. While the agreement will not contain a code of conduct (as originally proposed by the Canadian government), the 34 nations are acknowledging that they need to find ways to help corporations raise labor and environmental standards. Finally, the participants may adopt a democracy clause that limits participation in future summits to only those nations with democratic rule. If they agree to do so, they are creating a new conditionality-market access conditioned on political as well as economic openness.
Yet like trade agreements in the past, the public in many of the 34 participating nations has little understanding of what the negotiators are doing and how they might benefit (or lose) from such an agreement. For more information on the potential and limitations of this historic trade agreement, as well as perspective on the street protests, please contact Susan Aaronson, Senior Fellow, NPA, (202) 884-7622 or visit our web site at: http://www.ustradepolicy.org/ustp/FTAA.htm
Dr. Aaronson is the author of Taking Trade to the Streets: The Lost History of Public Efforts to Shape Globalization (Michigan: 2001).:
