10 reasons to Stop the SPP ...
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The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)
10 Reasons to Stop the SPP
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwAZOxKbi3I
(10:17)
Transcript from SPP Public Forum
- Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, speaking:
Ottowa, August 19, 2007
Video Caption: "10 Reasons to Stop the SPP"
(applause)
Delighted to be here - thrilled at this wonderful turnout, thrilled at the march we had together, the feeling of solidarity, of love, dare I say it.
The feeling that we are going to win this thing was just overpowering. (applause)
Have to tell you this reminds me very much of the MAI fight - the Multi-lateral Agreement on Investments - and people were going around saying "what the hell is an MAI" and pretty soon we had 600 groups - 600 MAI-free zones across the country, and we won it, and may I remind the people who think that this agenda is just fine and nobody is going to interfere with us, the WTO is on its knees, the free trade areas of the Americas is dead. The only people who do not know this model of globalization is over and done with are the people heading our countries and the big business community telling them what to do, and it's time they listened.
Very quickly, because I want to get substance in here, I want to give you the ten reasons to oppose SPP, and I want to do it fast because we only have a few minutes each.
Number One: The SPP is profoundly anti-democratic. The North American Competitiveness Council, made up of the CEO's from 30 major corporations, including WalMart, General Electric, Merck, and Lockheed-Martin ... and with the three heads of state drafted all of SPP's 300 initiatives. No other sector in our society has been on the SPP and elected representatives in all three countries have been frozen out of the process.
Number Two: The SPP extends George Bush's war on terror, with its fixation on bombs, borders, and bibles, to Canada and Mexico. Canada has now merged its no-fly list with the 5 million Americans on the master U.S. list, regularly returning back refugee claimants from Latin America to take their chances with the Bush administration, and its silence on the abuses in Guantanamo Bay and the foreign sites of "rendition" and torture.
Number Three: The SPP set the stage for a common, continental foreign policy because it assumes a common approach to external threats. That is the fundamental basis of the deal. In order to keep goods flowing across the U.S. / Canada border, Canadian and Mexican authorities must adopt a common notion of defense. Canada is clearly and openly now in Afghanistan and supports the battle in Iraq, and as continental defense operability increases, the chances for an independent foreign policy decrease.
Number Four: The SPP has adopted continental regulatory convergence. Twenty cross-border working groups, using the definition of "smart regulations" with emphasis on "risk-assessment" over the cautionary principle, have been tasked with "harmonizing" standards, regulations, and practices in areas as diverse as the environment, health, food, intelligence, transport, law enforcement, traveller security, and regional competitiveness. This, with a super-power where political appointees now supervise the work of regulators in all federal agencies to ensure that regulations are "market friendly."
Number Five: The SPP will help reintroduce the defeated Multi-lateral Agreement on Investments back into North America through TILMA - the Trade Investment and Labor Mobility Agreement - already in place between Alberta and British Columbia. The SPP plan for regulatory convergence is made more difficult by the fact that the provinces have a lot of authority over over rules affecting the economy. TILMA gives corporations the right to sue for compensation if they run into higher standards in other provinces. If all the provinces sign up to TILMA, which is the plan, then the job of continental regulatory convergence is much easier.
Number Six: The SPP is an energy grab, and will accelerate the destruction of energy reserves on the continent. A five-fold increase is built into the SPP process, and the U.S. energy companies and the White House want to cut any red tape or environmental concerns connected with this project. Prime Minister Harper bailed out of Kyoto accords to pave the way for massive new energy production in Canada, to provide for U.S. "energy security." Mexico's independent energy policy will be the next item on the table.
Number Seven: The SPP paves the way for American control of Canada's water supply. This is confirmed by the three think tanks hired by the government to design a policy blueprint for the documents called North American Future 2025 Project. These documents, in several closed door meetings last Spring, clearly stated that water exports and commercial diversions are a serious topic of negotiations. Assurances by the Harper government Canada's water is not for sale sound very much like assurances made by Brian Mulroney twenty years ago, that Canada's energy was safe from NAFTA.
Number Eight: The SPP promotes the fast-tracking of cheap imports from Asia, set to grow exponentially in coming decades, to the expansion of super-ports, particularly Halifax and Vancouver, and trade corridors, including a NAFTA super-highway that will include multi-lane highways, railway lines, electrical grids, energy and perhaps water pipelines, connected to natural gas terminals - all to facilitate the explosion of imports. There are nowhere near enough inspectors in North America at present to deal with these imports now. The SPP will make the situation more dangerous.
Number Nine: The SPP will weaken labor standards. The North American Future 2025 Project calls for labor flexibility to respond to the new demands of the transitional markets in order to keep this new bloc competitive. This is codespeak for disbanding unions, lower wages, and precarious working conditions, for which North America will need increasing seasonal and migrant workers from Mexico, and indeed Canada's migrant program to be expanded as protections for these workers weaken.
Number Ten: The SPP will encourage regional integration in "free-trade-zones" like Cascadia and Atlantica ... already touting the lower labor standards and harmonization of regulations right across all the provinces of the Atlantic area and the Northeastern states of the United States involved in this project. As east/west links are broken and economic and security considerations move to the fore, the links that bind us as a people will weaken, as will the social contract that we have made to one another.
Now I said this was ten, but I have one more minute left and I would say there probably is one more, and that is this model is the absolute wrong model for the world. This model is not only profoundly anti-democratic but is guided and led solely by trade and economic interests. We are not opposed to trade, we are not opposed to the economy - but we believe it must serve people and communities, and when it gets turned upside down, and people and communities and resources have to serve the agenda of these large corporations, something is terribly wrong in our world ... and we are here to say that we are not going to accept this.
I expect this model, as an executive agreement which bypasses the legislature, is a model they would like to impose around the world, and don't forget, it was the Canada/U.S. free-trade agreement which became the model for NAFTA which became the model for all the bilateral agreements which became the model for the WTO, so this may be the breeding ground again for the next level of this corporate power, corporate takeover of our world.
Well, we've been working with the The Council of Common Frontiers and Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and other groups. It's very very hard to get the word out around Canada and across the continent, and I can tell you it is happening. We're getting calls and hits on our website from all over the world and suddenly this issue has come to the fore, and we are going to stand up loud and clear and say NO to this agenda, not just because of Canadian environmental concerns and Canadian workers concerns and our concerns about health and safety ... nor just about the issue of democracy, but because if we allow this to happen on this continent, its going to be the blueprint for the world, and we are not going to do that, again.
Thank you very much for being here.
(applause)
- http://canadians.org/
- http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/
.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)
10 Reasons to Stop the SPP
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwAZOxKbi3I
(10:17)
Transcript from SPP Public Forum
- Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, speaking:
Ottowa, August 19, 2007
Video Caption: "10 Reasons to Stop the SPP"
(applause)
Delighted to be here - thrilled at this wonderful turnout, thrilled at the march we had together, the feeling of solidarity, of love, dare I say it.
The feeling that we are going to win this thing was just overpowering. (applause)
Have to tell you this reminds me very much of the MAI fight - the Multi-lateral Agreement on Investments - and people were going around saying "what the hell is an MAI" and pretty soon we had 600 groups - 600 MAI-free zones across the country, and we won it, and may I remind the people who think that this agenda is just fine and nobody is going to interfere with us, the WTO is on its knees, the free trade areas of the Americas is dead. The only people who do not know this model of globalization is over and done with are the people heading our countries and the big business community telling them what to do, and it's time they listened.
Very quickly, because I want to get substance in here, I want to give you the ten reasons to oppose SPP, and I want to do it fast because we only have a few minutes each.
Number One: The SPP is profoundly anti-democratic. The North American Competitiveness Council, made up of the CEO's from 30 major corporations, including WalMart, General Electric, Merck, and Lockheed-Martin ... and with the three heads of state drafted all of SPP's 300 initiatives. No other sector in our society has been on the SPP and elected representatives in all three countries have been frozen out of the process.
Number Two: The SPP extends George Bush's war on terror, with its fixation on bombs, borders, and bibles, to Canada and Mexico. Canada has now merged its no-fly list with the 5 million Americans on the master U.S. list, regularly returning back refugee claimants from Latin America to take their chances with the Bush administration, and its silence on the abuses in Guantanamo Bay and the foreign sites of "rendition" and torture.
Number Three: The SPP set the stage for a common, continental foreign policy because it assumes a common approach to external threats. That is the fundamental basis of the deal. In order to keep goods flowing across the U.S. / Canada border, Canadian and Mexican authorities must adopt a common notion of defense. Canada is clearly and openly now in Afghanistan and supports the battle in Iraq, and as continental defense operability increases, the chances for an independent foreign policy decrease.
Number Four: The SPP has adopted continental regulatory convergence. Twenty cross-border working groups, using the definition of "smart regulations" with emphasis on "risk-assessment" over the cautionary principle, have been tasked with "harmonizing" standards, regulations, and practices in areas as diverse as the environment, health, food, intelligence, transport, law enforcement, traveller security, and regional competitiveness. This, with a super-power where political appointees now supervise the work of regulators in all federal agencies to ensure that regulations are "market friendly."
Number Five: The SPP will help reintroduce the defeated Multi-lateral Agreement on Investments back into North America through TILMA - the Trade Investment and Labor Mobility Agreement - already in place between Alberta and British Columbia. The SPP plan for regulatory convergence is made more difficult by the fact that the provinces have a lot of authority over over rules affecting the economy. TILMA gives corporations the right to sue for compensation if they run into higher standards in other provinces. If all the provinces sign up to TILMA, which is the plan, then the job of continental regulatory convergence is much easier.
Number Six: The SPP is an energy grab, and will accelerate the destruction of energy reserves on the continent. A five-fold increase is built into the SPP process, and the U.S. energy companies and the White House want to cut any red tape or environmental concerns connected with this project. Prime Minister Harper bailed out of Kyoto accords to pave the way for massive new energy production in Canada, to provide for U.S. "energy security." Mexico's independent energy policy will be the next item on the table.
Number Seven: The SPP paves the way for American control of Canada's water supply. This is confirmed by the three think tanks hired by the government to design a policy blueprint for the documents called North American Future 2025 Project. These documents, in several closed door meetings last Spring, clearly stated that water exports and commercial diversions are a serious topic of negotiations. Assurances by the Harper government Canada's water is not for sale sound very much like assurances made by Brian Mulroney twenty years ago, that Canada's energy was safe from NAFTA.
Number Eight: The SPP promotes the fast-tracking of cheap imports from Asia, set to grow exponentially in coming decades, to the expansion of super-ports, particularly Halifax and Vancouver, and trade corridors, including a NAFTA super-highway that will include multi-lane highways, railway lines, electrical grids, energy and perhaps water pipelines, connected to natural gas terminals - all to facilitate the explosion of imports. There are nowhere near enough inspectors in North America at present to deal with these imports now. The SPP will make the situation more dangerous.
Number Nine: The SPP will weaken labor standards. The North American Future 2025 Project calls for labor flexibility to respond to the new demands of the transitional markets in order to keep this new bloc competitive. This is codespeak for disbanding unions, lower wages, and precarious working conditions, for which North America will need increasing seasonal and migrant workers from Mexico, and indeed Canada's migrant program to be expanded as protections for these workers weaken.
Number Ten: The SPP will encourage regional integration in "free-trade-zones" like Cascadia and Atlantica ... already touting the lower labor standards and harmonization of regulations right across all the provinces of the Atlantic area and the Northeastern states of the United States involved in this project. As east/west links are broken and economic and security considerations move to the fore, the links that bind us as a people will weaken, as will the social contract that we have made to one another.
Now I said this was ten, but I have one more minute left and I would say there probably is one more, and that is this model is the absolute wrong model for the world. This model is not only profoundly anti-democratic but is guided and led solely by trade and economic interests. We are not opposed to trade, we are not opposed to the economy - but we believe it must serve people and communities, and when it gets turned upside down, and people and communities and resources have to serve the agenda of these large corporations, something is terribly wrong in our world ... and we are here to say that we are not going to accept this.
I expect this model, as an executive agreement which bypasses the legislature, is a model they would like to impose around the world, and don't forget, it was the Canada/U.S. free-trade agreement which became the model for NAFTA which became the model for all the bilateral agreements which became the model for the WTO, so this may be the breeding ground again for the next level of this corporate power, corporate takeover of our world.
Well, we've been working with the The Council of Common Frontiers and Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and other groups. It's very very hard to get the word out around Canada and across the continent, and I can tell you it is happening. We're getting calls and hits on our website from all over the world and suddenly this issue has come to the fore, and we are going to stand up loud and clear and say NO to this agenda, not just because of Canadian environmental concerns and Canadian workers concerns and our concerns about health and safety ... nor just about the issue of democracy, but because if we allow this to happen on this continent, its going to be the blueprint for the world, and we are not going to do that, again.
Thank you very much for being here.
(applause)
- http://canadians.org/
- http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/
.
posted by JamesB at 10:50 AM
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