Costa Rica Referendum on NAFTA
IFP.E...@googlemail.com
Expansion :
An Action Alert from Global Trade Watch :
Tell Congress that voters want a different course on trade - write
your representative now!
Costa Rica just held the world's first ever popular referendum on a
NAFTA expansion. The result: nearly half the country ignored the fear-
mongering tactics of Bush and big corporations and voted against CAFTA
and for fair trade.
As October 7th Washington Post reported, the vote "followed a
contentious campaign marked by a scandal that toppled one of the
country's vice presidents and a last-minute push for votes by the
White House."
This "push" included the Bush administration invoking misleading
threats just hours before the polls opened that Costa Rica would
suffer economic reprisals for voting "no." Tell Congress this kind of
irresponsible bullying can't happen again!
http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=15509
Despite this last-minute intervention, nearly half of the voters in
Latin America's oldest democracy voted down the NAFTA expansion, based
on the clear negative impact of this policy on Mexico and other
countries. You can read our analysis here at Eyes On Trade.
This outcome should make clear that the process of repairing U.S.
relations with Latin America needs to start with staying out of their
elections, and not pushing more destructive NAFTA-style trade deals.
Unfortunately, Bush doesn't seem to think so. In the coming weeks,
Congress will vote on whether to help Bush expand NAFTA to Peru -
despite the opposition of that country's religious, labor, retiree,
and indigenous groups and others.
You can help stop Bush's NAFTA expansion to Peru - a deal that has all
the same job-offshoring, people-displacing, corporation-enriching
provisions that half of Costa Rica braved Bush's threats to oppose.
Please tell your members of Congress that you want a new path on trade
in America, both North and South. http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=15509
Thank you for your help in the fight for fair
trade!
Global Trade Watch -
p.s. For more information and key documents on the Peru NAFTA
expansion deal, and updates on Costa Rica and CAFTA, see GTW's website
or our blog, Eyes On Trade.
About the Oakland Institute: The Oakland Institute is a policy think
tank whose mission is to increase public participation and promote
fair debate on critical social, economic, environmental and foreign
policy issues.