Trade Primer

NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a trade and investment deal signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States. NAFTA came into effect in 1994. It gave new powers to corporations to unilaterally control investment flows, at the expense of workers' rights and standard of living. Much more than a trade deal, the NAFTA has become the model for international agreements. It has reinforced inequalities of power across North America and has entrenched an economic model of integration that has resulted in a growing gap between the rich and poor of North America.
Chapter 11 is NAFTA's "Investment Chapter" that gives foreign corporations the power to sue governments for passing laws or making other decisions that affect present or future business activities and profits.

The Free Trade Agreement Area of the Americas
The FTAA is the name given to a proposal for the expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to all countries of the Americas, except Cuba.
The starting point for FTAA negotiations is that no services, including public services, are excluded. FTAA negotiators say that governments should no longer be able to make this choice.

General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
The GATS is a global treaty on services adopted in 1994 as part of the new World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements reached in the GATS affect how governments regulate services -- from water testing to heart surgery. It restricts actions taken by all levels of government, whether central, regional, or local. The treaty also has a built-in requirement for repeated rounds of negotiations to expand its coverage.
Since most of what governments do qualify as services the GATS has potentially staggering consequences for all public programs and services delivered by all levels of government.
The GATS seeks to eventually remove virtually all barriers to trade in services. This would include public services like health care, social services, education and postal services.
Canada's current regulatory framework that ensures that we have a clean and safe environment, safe workplaces and minimum employment standards also has the potential to be classified as an unfair barrier to trade.

WTO
The World Trade Organization is the powerful international body headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with a membership of 139 countries. It was set up in 1995 to deal with the rules of global trade. Governments around the world negotiate within the WTO with the sole purpose of implementing a more liberalized international trade system, and the WTO then enforces the trade agreements that are reached.

The common thread in all of these trade agreements is that they all go beyond simply promoting trade. They all put more emphasis on protecting the rights of private corporations and investors. They all believe that private business alone should make all important decisions in the economy.