The Trade Warriors Come to Town

  
Negotiations for the US-Chile free trade agreement have been ongoing in Miami for the past several months, highlighting that city's quest to be the headquarters of the Permanent Secretariat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. More recently, the negotiations have become a key part of the Bush administration's push for the "Trade Promotion Authority" it needs to finalize the FTAA as well as many other new treaties that are on the drawing board, including a new round of the WTO.

The sense that the US-Chile FTA is a building block for the FTAA effort has focused more attention on the negotiations than the recently concluded treaties with Jordan or Vietnam. For many groups that oppose current trade policies, the Chile FTA shows the real threats of the broader hemispheric agreement. These threats affect not only the environment and labor, they argue, but the overall deregulation of large areas of what has heretofore been considered "the public sector." Also at issue is the secrecy of the negotiations themselves.

Into this fray stepped a small group of trade warriors to "bear witness" to the negotiations in a series of events held in late November to coincide with the beginning of the next round of US-Chile FTA talks at the University of Miami's School of Business. A team from the Hemispheric Social Alliance's networks in Chile and the United States came to Miami to make the organization's presence felt. Members included Coral Pey, executive secretary of the Chilean Alliance for Just and Responsible Trade. This group, the HSA's partner in Chile, is a network of development, environmental, women's, academic, human and labor rights organizations that organized the first People's Summit in 1998. Also participating were Jason Tockman, director of the American Lands Alliances International Trade Program; and Tom Hansen, director of the Mexico Solidarity Network and grassroots coordinator for the Alliance for Responsible Trade, the multi-sectoral network on trade that is the US member of the HSA. They were joined by local trade activists.

The group held a few forums, including one sponsored by the Summit of the Americas Center on the FIU campus. But the participants' real objective was to make their presence felt among the negotiators and their governments at the University of Miami in Coral Gables. The evening before the scheduled protest, two Coral Gables detectives sought out the organizers at UM's behest to find out the extent of the activities planned, so that they could mobilize their resources, barriers and other preventive measures. They were assured that the protest would be both peaceful and limited.

In the end, not more than a dozen protestors, many university students, picketed the entrance to the negotiations bearing signs proclaiming, "Secret Trade Meeting Underway" and "Negotiating Away Sovereignty." The Chilean delegation joined the demonstrators in animated conversation. Alicia Frohmann, the chief of the FTAA and North American Department of the Chilean government's International Economic Relations Office formally received the joint statement prepared by the Chilean and US networks. She also invited the NGO representatives to continue discussions over a light lunch.

In contrast to the Chileans' attitude, Regina Vargo, chief negotiator for the USTR, stopped in her tracks when she saw the protesters. She walked over to where the police were standing and when Tom Hanson of the Alliance for Responsible Trade brought over a copy of the statement, she backed away and motioned that he give it to her press secretary. Ms. Vargo refused to engage in any discussion and turned down an invitation to join the lunch with the Chileans.

One of the most interesting aspects of the trade negotiations was set to unfold during the week of December 2, when the vice president of Chile's Labor Confederation was scheduled to join the talks. He is rumored to support the Chilean government's position. It has long been a tactic of post-Pinochet governments to claim that their political support from the unions extends to trade policy matters. It must be said, however, that Chilean NGOs and unions are less likely to attack their government thanks to the open dialogue and consideration their positions receive at the highest levels. This is true despite the fact that on labor and environmental issues, the Chilean negotiations appear to be even less favorable than the recent US FTA with Jordan and even NAFTA. It only goes to show what a bit of transparency can do to improve the image of trade negotiations.