|
Resolution
Supporting the Efforts of Fair
Trade Advocates to Defeat the Passage of the
Central American Free Trade Agreement
WHEREAS, the year 2004 marks the
10th anniversary of the enactment of
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);
and
WHEREAS, NAFTA
has caused the loss of more than 800,000
manufacturing jobs, and net job losses in every
U.S. state and the District of Columbia
including 50, 270 manufacturing jobs in Texas;
and
WHEREAS, NAFTA
has proven record of negative impacts that
disproportionately impact working Mexicans and
Latinos living in the United States:
-
Although
Latino represent 13 percent of the entire US
population, they were a disproportionate 37
percent of all workers who have applied for
assistance under the NAFTA Trade Adjustment
Assistance program, the program designed to
provide unemployment benefits and training
for workers whose jobs are relocated to
Mexico or Canada; and
-
Both sides of
the border suffer from NAFTA’S negative
impact on environmental laws and
protections-a disproportionate number of
U.S./Mexico border residents suffer from
environmental health problems related to air
pollution, inadequate water and sewage
treatment, pesticides and hazardous wastes;
and
-
Wages for
manufacturing in Mexico fell 20.7% between
1993 and 1999 it now takes 5 Mexican minimum
wages to support basic needs for a family of
four; and
-
In the last
10 years more than 1.3 million Mexican
farmers have lost their livelihoods and
migrated north to the cities and to the
border looking for jobs in the maquiladoras;
and
-
30 percent of
the jobs that were created in maquiladoras
in the 1990’s have since relocated to even
cheaper markets in Asia and Central America;
and
-
Real wages in
Mexico are lower now than when NAFTA took
effect; and
-
Undocumented
migration to the U.S. from Mexico has more
than doubled since NAFTA was enacted; and
-
Increased
U.S. border policing and militarization
since NAFTA has lead to more than 2,700
deaths from failed border crossings in
desperate attempts to seek the American
dream; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Trade
Representative (USTR) is negotiating trade
agreements that could have greater potential
impact on state and local governments than does
NAFTA, including the Central American Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA), which could come before
Congress as soon as the Summer 2004; and
WHEREAS, the passage of CAFTA would
further encourage the relocation of
manufacturing jobs to cheaper labor markets
pitting U.S. Latinos and Mexicans against
citizens of the global south in a race to the
bottom; and
WHEREAS, CAFTA fails to include
adequate enforcement for violations of
internationally recognized labor and
environmental standards; and
WHEREAS, Human Rights Watch, the
International Labor Organization and the U.S.
State Department have each published reports
denouncing human and labor rights abuses in the
Central American countries party to the CAFTA
agreement; and
WHEREAS, CAFTA includes foreign
investor rights modeled after NAFTA as well as
trade rules that could challenge state and local
authority in such areas as water services,
electricity, health facilities, health insurance
and zoning; and
WHEREAS, CAFTA allows foreign
corporations to bring actions against
governments that pass labor, public health or
environmental laws that reduce corporate
profits, as corporations are allowed to do under
NAFTA Ch.11;
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that
LULAC call upon our state-level organizations
and local chapters to educate members about the
negative impacts of NAFTA and the threat CAFTA
poses to workers, health and prosperity and;
that LULAC supports the efforts of fair trade
advocates to defeat passage of CAFTA; and be it
finally resolved that LULAC urges members of
congress to reject CAFTA and work for fair trade
agreements that raise the standards of living
for labor and protects our environmental
standards.
Submitted by Jaime Martinez, President of Cesar
Chavez LULAC Council 4626.
Adopted this 10th day of July
2004.
Hector M. Flores
LULAC National President |
