Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mont!rich From: harelb@cabot.dartmouth.edu (Harel Barzilai) Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive Subject: Guardian Analysis of "Fast Track" (I) (THEME) Message-ID: <1991Jun19.205058.26445@pencil.cs.missouri.edu> Date: 19 Jun 91 07:10:08 GMT Sender: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel) Followup-To: talk.environment,alt.activism.d,misc.headlines,alt.save.the.earth Organization: UMC Math Dept. Lines: 186 Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu "Horror stories abound in this region deemed 'a virtual cesspool' by a 1990 American Medical Association study [...] In 1988, a General Motors subsidiary was discovered dumping hundreds of barrels of toxics at a desert waste site less than two miles from a public beach in Matamoros. [...] Border infrastructure has been strained to the maximum by the growth promoted by these tax-exempt industries." "Mexican ecologists warn that the exclusion of ecological concerns from the upcoming trade negotiations, insisted upon by both Bush and Salinas, will extend the border model of "distorted development" to the entire country. They suggest that Bush's dream of "trade without barriers" refers more to freedom from labor and environmental legislation than to national protectionism, which has already been dropped uni-laterally by Mexico." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Topic 44 Guardian analysis forthcoming dbarkin carnet.mexnews 9:06 pm May 14, 1991 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >From mam Mon May 13 07:14 PDT 1991 To: guardian Subject: Mexican Environment-Free Trade Cc: agduna an cdavidson dbarkin labornotes oso sipro - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For possible use in a box or sidebar: [Confidential cable from John Dimitri Negroponte, U.S. Ambassador in Mexico to Secretary of State Bernard Aronson last month, a photocopy of which was published in the May 13, 1991 edition of Mexican weekly PROCESO. "The FTA process can also be helpful in dealing with environmental, labor and other "flank" issues but within carefully defined limits. There is no doubt that an FTA process with momentum will promote the harmonization of standards used by our respective bureaucracies and regulatory agencies: whether these issues are dealt with in or outside of an actual FTA document. The very proximity of our two countries encourages such a process: dramatic increases in trade accelerate it. But in discussin of these issues I think we face two dangers. One is promising too much in the way of progress on "flank" issues. We don't want to promise either for inclusion in the FTA or for coincidental achievement in a parallel process things which we can't deliver or whose failure to achieve would be grounds for delaying the FTA itself. ] ** ** ** Faced with the rapid integration of the North America Free Trade Area, environmentalists in Mexico are working with their Canadian and U.S. counterparts to oppose "fast track" negotiations, and to develop proposals & mechanisms to ensure environmental quality in the tri-national region. As Homero Aridjis, of the Group of 100 Artists and Intellectuals for the Environment, stated April 23 in testimony to the U.S. Senate Sub-Committees on Labor and the Environment, "I am here not only to defend my country, but yours as well... If our goal is sustainable development, the environment is a trade issue." With 20 years' experience as a free trade zone, the 2000 mile Mexico-U.S. border area is an oft-cited example of the disastrous consequences of separating environmental concerns from trade liberalization. According to Aridjis, "Multinationals are turning a desert into an industrial center without thinking about tomorrow... The border is a danger zone, on its way to becoming an environmental war zone." Though the Border Industrialization Program has existed since 1965, not until 1983 did the U.S. and Mexico sign their first General Agreement on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area (known as the La Paz Agreement), covering the 100 km inside each country. An agreement requiring U.S. companies to seek Mexican approval before exporting toxic wastes to Mexico was not signed until 1986. In the opinion of many, these measures have come too little, too late. Even Secretary of Ecology and Urban Development Patricio Chirinos recently admitted that the much-lauded Environmental Equilibrium Law of 1988 has been inadequate to deal with the "explosive and disordered growth" of the maquiladoras (assembly for export plants), of which there are now 2000 along the border. A recent Colegio de la Frontera Norte study of 772 maquiladoras found that 86% use toxic substances, including highly toxic chlorohydrins, asbestos, silicon, freon, acetone, hydrogen fluoride, fiberglass.... According to Colegio investigator Dr. Roberto Sanchez, the use of toxic substances is growing as border production processes move beyond the light-industry, sub-assembly operations into more complex processes. By law, U.S. maquiladoras (non-maquila U.S. companies are exempt) must export their hazardous wastes to the U.S., or "donate them to charities for re-cycling". The U.S. government must accept these wastes and must cover the cost of any damage resulting from illegal disposal in Mexico. However, according to Dr. Sanchez, "The cost of waste disposal is so high in the U.S. and so cheap in Mexico, that companies are tempted to 'forget'" to export their wastes." Horror stories abound in this region deemed "a virtual cesspool" by a 1990 American Medical Association study. In 1983, a Cobalt-60 pump used for radiation treatment was sold as scrap metal in Ciudad Juarez and melted down into construction beams. It was finally tracked down and buried in La Pedrera, Chihuahua. In 1988, a General Motors subsidiary was discovered dumping hundreds of barrels of toxics at a desert waste site less than two miles from a public beach in Matamoros. In October, 1989, 175 leaking drums of PCBs were found by El Paso Texas health officials in an inner city neighborhood two blocks from the US-Mexican border. Border infrastructure has been strained to the maximum by the growth promoted by these tax-exempt industries. Ciudad juarez has more than doubled its population in the last 10 years; Tijuana has five times the population it had in 1960. According to the AMA study: 46 million liters of raw sewage are flowing annually into the Tijuana river in Baja California, 76 million into the New River at Calexico- Mexicali, and 84 million into the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo on the Texas-Mexico border. According to a recent report by the Texas Center for Policy Studies and the Border Ecology Project, many border areas are pumping groundwater at a rate 20 times faster than their acquifers can recharge. In 1988, the Texas Water Comission found significant levels of copper, selenium and mercury in the tissue of fish from the Rio grade River near Laredo Texas. The Ciudad Juarez/El Paso border area suffers from serious air pollution, and the groundwater shared by Nogales, Texas and Nogales, Sonora is contaminated with industrial solvents. The La Paz ammendment regarding collaboration in case of accidents is strictly voluntary. Arjidis considers the border "a potential Bo Pahl" (where a Union Carbide chemical accident killed over 2800). In July, 1990, thousands of Mexicali residents were evacuated when a Mexicali plant released a mushroom cloud of sulfuric and hydrochloric acid; U.S. officials were not informed til three days later. Enforcement of environmental laws has been difficult: SEDUE has a total of 140 technicians to cover the entire country. According to Efrain Rosales Aguilera of the Mexican environmental agency SEDUE, some 250,000 tons of toxic substances have been approved for dumping in Mexico since the passage of the 1986 law. SEDUE head Rene Altamirano remarked at a recent border trade conference that only 35% of U.S.- owned factories are believed to be complying with Mexican environmental laws. Mexican ecologists warn that the exclusion of ecological concerns from the upcoming trade negotiations, insisted upon by both Bush and Salinas, will extend the border model of "distorted development" to the entire country. They suggest that Bush's dream of "trade without barriers" refers more to freedom from labor and environmental legislation than to national protectionism, which has already been dropped uni-laterally by Mexico. The 1989 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement serves only to confirm their fears: Canadian subsidies and incentives to abate acid pollution and to promote reforestation are now vulnerable to U.S. attack as barriers to trade. Canadian industry is calling for reduced pollution standards which it claims as necessary in order to compete in the new trade environment. According to Aridjis, U.S.-Mexican trade relations are currently permeated with a "double standard". He cites the fact that the Mexican market is flooded with fruits and vegetables which have been refused import into the U.S. because they bear residues of banned pesticides produced by U.S. companies in Mexico. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fears that Free Trade will only speed the exploitation of Mexico's natural resources. According to a recent World Bank report, 2500 square kilometers of Mexican forests are being destroyed a year. Unless serious measures are taken, Aridjis warns, more than 2.5 million acres of forests and agricultural land will be gone by the end of the century. =================================== [ . . . c o n t i n u e d . . . ] ===================================