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March 6, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/78962/
PARLIAMENTARIANS
FROM THE THREE NAFTA COUNTRIES ANNOUNCE TASK FORCE
ON NAFTA RENEGOTIATION
WASHINGTON,
DC – Following a conference held on March 5th at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, which took a critical look at
how NAFTA has impacted the North American region, legislators from
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico agreed today to launch a Task Force
to push for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA).
The Task Force
on Renegotiating NAFTA, will be chaired by NDP Trade Critic, Peter
Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster), U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur
(D-Ohio), the Honourable Yeidckol Polevnsky (Senator for Mexico
State and Vice-president of the Mexican Senate), and the Honourable
Victor Quintana (Deputy of the State of Chihuahua, Mexico), with
support from their respective political parties. Members of the
Task Force undertake to promote within their respective legislatures
the renegotiation
of NAFTA.
The objectives
of the Task Force include transforming and rebuilding NAFTA in order
to achieve a fair trade policy. This fair trade model is designed
to safeguard the sovereignty of the three countries, and includes
enforceable measures for the protection of workers and the environment,
and allows for all three governments to regulate in the public
interest.
“In the
United States, Mexico and Canada, income inequality has grown dramatically
in the almost fifteen years since the free trade agenda took effect.
In Canada, families are worse off today than they were when the
first agreement was implemented in 1989,” said Julian. “More
and more Canadians work harder without being able to keep up. Over
291,000
manufacturing jobs have been lost in Canada since 2002 with increasing
hardships in softwood lumber communities and elsewhere in Canada.”
“NAFTA
has sucked good American jobs away, destroyed the Mexican countryside,
deepened our immigration crisis, wiped out the Mexican and middle
and small business classes, not brought about promised investments
in infrastructure, and hammered communities across the continent.
It’s time for Mexico, Canada, and the United States to work
together to change this flawed trade model”, said Kaptur.
“It is
indispensable that legislators from all three North American partner
countries work together to design an alternative project that
takes into account each nation’s sovereignty, environmental
protection,economic competitiveness, migration, and labor rights,”
said Polevnsky.
“We must
work hand in hand with civic organizations to launch a progressive
program that considers the well-being of human beings as the raison
d’être of public policy. The Mexican Senate is looking
forward to host this Trinational Task Force in the near future”,
she said.
“I am
pleased that our three nations are working together to build better
trading partnerships that support the principles of social justice,
environmental sustainability, and human rights”, stated NDP
Leader,Jack Layton.
Members of the
Task Force are scheduled to meet in the spring 2008, at a location
to be announced soon.
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