by Rick Arnold*

When most people compare Mexico with Canada they often focus on the differences (languages, climate, colonial histories, form of government, level of industrial development etc.). While these differences are significant, they can mask areas of common concern. The most obvious tie that binds our two countries is that of living beside the United States of America. Our common neighbour is a global colossus that has historically wielded enormous economic influence and backed it up with military might.

La Quinta Cumbre presidencial de las Américas se realizará en Trinidad y Tobago en abril de 2009. Será la primera cumbre continental después de la de Mar del Plata en 2005, cuando se protocolizó el fracaso del ALCA y también la primera a la que asistirá Barack Obama como nuevo presidente de Estados Unidos.

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

15 Years of Damage is Enough: NAFTA Must Be Renegotiated

(Montreal, Ottawa, Washington and Mexico City / December 30, 2008) – January 1, 2009 marks the 15th anniversary of the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which integrates the economies of Canada and Mexico with that of the United States. For civil society networks in the three North American signatory countries, this anniversary is no cause for celebration.

BERLIN, Mar 22 (IPS) — On his arrival at a Joint Parliamentary Assembly of EU and ACP countries in Slovenian capital Ljubljana this week, EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel was confronted with an array of parliamentarians and civil society activists carrying the message, ’Brussels-made EPAs will not fit ACPs’.

"I do not agree with you," countered Michel. "If you want to remain poor, just be against the EPAs."

24 March 2008

OTTAWA - Free trade talks between Canada and South Korea have hit some serious roadblocks and could end in failure, Trade Minister David Emerson said Tuesday.

But the trade minister was bullish on reaching a free trade agreement with Colombia despite opposition from human rights group that the country’s government is behind attacks and assassinations on union leaders and activists.

Prensa Latina, Cuba

Paraguayan Opp Candidate: No FTA with US

24 March 2008

Asuncion, Mar 24 (Prensa Latina) Fernando Lugo, presidential candidate for Paraguayan opposition Alianza Patriotica para el Cambio showed himself against a Free Trade Agreement with the US in case he wins the elections.

"I would rather try to keep deepening regional integration through adhesion and work with the South Common Market (MERCOSUR)," said Lugo in an interview to Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color Monday.

By Barb Kucera, Workday editor
Edgar Paez
MINNEAPOLIS — Edgar Paez considers himself fortunate to be able to campaign across the United States this month against the proposed U.S.-Colombia free trade deal. Twenty-two members of his union — assassinated for their activism — weren’t so lucky.

Employees of Coca-Cola, Nestle and other multinational corporations, "they were killed because they were fighting for workers to be paid better — and that would have resulted in the companies not making as much profit," he said.

26 March 2008

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — The United States should build on the North American Free Trade Agreement by negotiating a new free trade deal with the 27 nations of the European Union, Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Wednesday.

"I am an unashamed and unabashed defender of NAFTA. I am an unabashed supporter of free trade agreements. In fact, it would be interesting ... to have a free trade agreement between ourselves and the European Union," McCain said in a speech to the World Affairs Council.

Venezuela will help Mercosur become continental block

26 March 2008

Mercosur with Venezuela included has “the potential of becoming a trade block of the whole of South America” said Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister Ceslo Amorim who also insisted that keeping out of the Washington inspired Free Trade Area of the Americas, FTAA, “has been positive”.