Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Welcome to the NAFTA Dance: May I see YOUR invitation?
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Shake hands with your partner.
Allemande Left, do the NAFTA DoSaDo!
If you feel like you’re at a square dance that’s being called in a foreign language, it’s because you are. Welcome to the NAFTA Dance. Where the power elite is the belle of the ball, and the public, that’s you, is the whore in the hall.
Mexico, Canada and the US have joined hands and are now forming a circle that is becoming impossible to penetrate. Impossible to penetrate because as more of the public is becoming aware of exactly what affect NAFTA is going to have on our futures the heavier the veil surrounding NAFTA becomes.
Among a litany of fast-track recommendations the Council of the Americas recommends being implemented by the end of this year are:
1. Establish a set of rules that provide legal protection for companies that conduct risk assessments and share information on vulnerabilities with the appropriate government entities.
(Protection from litigation resulting in bad risk assessments resulting in harm to the public?)
2. Implementing preclearance pilot projects.
(Well underway, this moves customs processes further inland from actual border crossings. This move constitutes moving potentially catastrophic events into the hearts of Canada and the US rather than keeping these events in the nation in which they originate.)
3. Improve the benefits of voluntary business participation in security programs.
(Little needs to be said regarding business doing anything voluntary as it applies to anything much beyond the profit margin.)
4. Further simplify the NAFTA rules-of-origin requirements.
(US$30billion in trilateral trade has already been simplified to the point our health protection is becoming virtually non-existent.)
5. Simplify NAFTA certification process and requirements. “The long-term goal should be to eliminate the NAFTA certificate on shipments.”
(Eliminating the administrative burden on producers of finished goods)
6. Withdraw or suspend the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
(US and Canada should lower their standards by mitigating legitimate risks while minimizing disruption to legitimate trade.)
Potential meaning:
Lower your health and safety standards as it pertains to imports.
Raise the potential for dangerous cargo getting past the borders and moving inland.
Leave border crossings free from congestion so that goods can still move freely across the border should there be a catastrophic event inland.
Spend all resources necessary for the promotion of trade rather than finding innovative, safe and secure ways of protecting and feeding our own citizens.
Those yellow bricks paving the NAFTA superhighway appear to be made of gold. Who is financing the fancy footwork of the NAFTA dance?
Photo by birdw0rks NYC
Labels: Canada, Mexico, NAFTA, NASCO, North American Union, Supercorridor, Superhighway, USA
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Welcome to the NAFTA Dance: May I see YOUR invitation?
