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"On the tenth anniversary of the NAFTA accord.. virtually none of the benefits touted by the treaty's many boosters a decade ago have come into being, while a number of disturbing developments have emerged... while the accord generated nothing like the number of expected jobs in Mexico, it devastated hundreds of thousands of subsistence farmers... China quickly replaced Mexico as the favored destination for multinationals looking for cheap labor... untold damage has been done to democracy throughout the continent, thanks to the many provisions of the treaty that allow corporations to circumvent local laws...
"..it was never NAFTA's direct effects that made it so attractive to corporate America. It was the leverage it gave so many corporations over their workers.." (Eric Alterman. "A Spectacular Success?" The Nation, Feb. 2, 2004, 10).
"NAFTA.. is the constitution of an emerging continental economy that recognizes one citizen--the business corporation. It gives corporations extraordinary protections from government policies that might limit future profits, and extraordinary rights to force the privatization of virtually all civilian public services. Disputes are settled by secret tribunals... At the same time, NAFTA excludes protections for workers, the environment and the public...
"Average real wages in Mexican manufacturing are actually lower than they were ten years ago. Two and a half million farmers and their families have been driven out of their local markets and off their land by heavily subsidized US and Canadian agribusiness...
In the U.S. "at least a half-million jobs have been lost" (Jeff Faux. "NAFTA at 10: Where Do We Go From Here?" The Nation, Feb. 2, 2004, 11).
"..globalization is just about passe. It was more or less buried at Cancun in September 2003. What happened is that the countries of the South (led by Brazil, India, China and South Africa) called the bluff of the free traders. They said free trade works both ways. If you want the South to open up to the North, then the North must open up to the South: no more subsidies to Northern producers, no more tariffs to keep out goods from the South. Of course, the North never really wanted that to happen. It would be political dynamite at home..." (Immanuel Wallerstein. "Soft Multilateralism." The Nation, Feb. 2, 2004, 14-20).
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