Spread this message with Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, or Stumbleupon, and subscribe to the RSS Feed to track articles

FTA's and Their Destabilizing Effect

Published 07/01/09 Dustin Ensinger - Print Article
E-mail - editor@economyincisis.org

Not only have so-called “free trade” agreements decimated America’s manufacturing base, drove the nation’s trade deficit to record heights and encouraged the outsourcing of American jobs, they have also had an incredibly destabilizing effect on America’s trading partners, according to Eyes on Trade.

The evidence of this is widespread. In Mexico, Peru, Columbia and now Honduras social unrest has become a hallmark of “free trade” agreements with the United States.

Mexico, which became inextricably linked to the U.S. through the ill-conceived North American Free Trade Agreement, is on the verge of becoming a failed state. NAFTA allows American agricultural products to flood the Mexican market, pushing hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of indigenous farmers out of work.

That, in turn, led to both an increase in illegal immigration to the U.S. as many of those out of work farmers sought economic refuge in the U.S. and a drastic increase in drug-trafficking in the country. The increase in drug activity has led to the deaths of thousands, pushed Mexico’s law enforcement agencies to the brink and the violence threatens to spill over the border into the U.S.

In Peru, the indigenous population has been engaged in a violent clash with police forces since the Peruvian “free trade” agreement opened up tens of thousand of acres of the Amazon forest to private investment. The deforestation has led to the displacement of countless families and the partial destruction of one of the world’s largest and most vital ecosystems. In response, the indigenous Peruvians have fought back, leading to a June 5 clash with police forces that resulted in at least 33 deaths.

Although the U.S. and Columbia have yet to finalize and ratify the “free trade’ agreement negotiated under the Bush administration, the talk alone has lead to widespread violence. There, labor leaders that have opposed the job-killing trade pact have been silenced through murder. According to The International Trade Union Confederation, Columbia remains the most dangerous place on Earth for trade unionists. According to the ITUC, a total of 48 labor organizers were murdered in Columbia in 2008; 39 in 2007 and 78 in 2006.

The latest example of the destabilizing effect “free trade” has on nations is currently playing out in Honduras where left-wing President Manuel Zelaya has been ousted in a military coup.

According to Eyes on Trade, his ouster was pushed heavily by local elites unhappy with the trade policies of the fair trading president. He opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement and recently signed onto the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas, an alternative to NAFTA-style “free trade” agreements.

According to those that unabashedly support “free trade” it is supposed to promote democracy and stability, reduce poverty and enrich cultures, however, that could not be further from the truth.

In reality, “free trade” leads to economic and social destabilization, environmental degradation, increased income inequality and forced cultural change. Pushed by elites for the benefit of few, “free” trade has certainly not been good to the Southern Hemisphere

Source Eyes on Trade:

Fair traders have long maintained that NAFTA-style trade deals promote instability.

The case of Mexico clearly showed this, with massive amounts of post-NAFTA rural displacement leading to sharp increases in immigration and narcotrafficking, leading the country to the brink of failed statehood.

Click Here For Solutions To America's Economic Problems

Click here to contact your Representative in Congress.

Unless the above article is already copyrighted, this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License, EIC grants permission to use this article in whole or in part provided attribution is given, preferably in the form of a link back to EconomyInCrisis.org.