Transcript NAFTA SUPER CORRIDORS - AfD - The Alliance for Democracy

Threats to Our Communities & Our Water:
SPP, Super-Corridors, NAFTA
North American
Threats
to Our
Our Water:
Water:
Threats
to
Free Trade Agreement
Adapted by Ruth Caplan,
Sierra Club Water Privatization Task Force
Based on slide presentation by Janet Eaton, Sierra Club Canada
Threats to Our Communities and Water:
Topics Covered
$$
1. What is the SPP?
2. NAFTA Super-Corridors
3. The push is on to sell water !!
4. Trade threats to water under NAFTA
5. How are citizens are building resistance
6. Resources for learning more and getting active
Security & Prosperity Partnership
of North America ( SPP)
Agreed to by US, Canada, Mexico
March 31st, 2005
Also known as “NAFTA Plus”
Security & Prosperity Partnership
What is it ?
What?
SPP launched March 2005 Waco Texas
President Bush, President Fox, and Prime
Minister Martin announced the Security and
Prosperity Partnership (SPP) for North America
on March 23, 2005 in Waco, Texas. Just a
handshake so no need to consult Congress or
Parliament.
“Through this partnership we will ensure that
North America remains the most economically
dynamic region of the world, a secure home for
our people for this and future generations.”
Joint Statement by President Bush, President
Fox, and Prime Minister Martin
www.spp.gov
Security & Prosperity Partnership
What is it?
What is?
Joint Statement by President Bush, President Fox, and
Prime Minister Martin, Waco Texas:
“The SPP builds upon, but is separate from, our longstanding trade and economic relationships.”
“This partnership has increased institutional contacts
between the three governments to respond to a shared
vision of a stronger, more secure and more prosperous
region.”
Whose vision would that be?
Did they consult you and me?
www.spp.gov
Security & Prosperity Partnership
How does it work?
?
SPP Working Groups:
Creating a Corporatocracy
•
13 cross-border working groups made up of
corporate leaders and senior government
officials were established.
•
10 are on Prosperity (including Energy,
Transportation, Food & Ag) and 3 on Security
•
They report to the three top Ministers within
their governments twice a year and meet in
person each March.
•
Public and NGO’s are not at the table
www.spp.gov/prosperity_working/index.asp?dName=prosperity_working
Security & Prosperity Partnership
How is it Working?
What?
SPP Transportation Working Group
“Will improve the safety and efficiency of North America's
transportation system by expanding market access, facilitating
multimodal corridors , reducing congestion, and alleviating
bottlenecks at the border that inhibit growth and threaten our
quality of life (e.g., expand air services agreements, … and
working with responsible jurisdictions, will develop mechanisms
for enhanced road infrastructure planning, including an
inventory of border transportation infrastructure in major
corridors and public-private financing instruments for border
projects.”1
“Multimodal corridors will include dedicated corridor for utilities
and water pipelines.” 2
__________________________
1 http://www.spp.gov/prosperity_working/index.asp?dName=prosperity_working
2 Texas Dept of Transportation http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/projects/
www.spp.gov
NAFTA Super-Corridors
NAFTA SUPER-CORRIDORS MEXICO TO CANADA
Photo Credit: forthecause.US
NAFTA Super-Corridors –
for cars, trucks, trains & water/oil pipelines
Projected SuperCorridors will
have
Water Pipelines
Continental Integration – North American Union
www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/printer_4218.shtml
NAFTA Super-Corridor
Artist’s Rendition
Water
Pipelines
Continental Integration – North American Union
www.forthecause.us/000ftc-newstopic-nafta-corridor.shtml
NAFTA Super-Corridors
•
The SPP, with its Transportation Working Group,
accelerates NAFTA Super-Corridors with their
proposed water pipelines!
•
National transportation bodies and cross border
consortia like the North American Super Corridor
Coalition -- NASCO* -- are also fueling this
process.
* NASCO- North American Super- Corridor Coalition:
Mission is to develop the world’s first international, integrated and
secure, multi-modal transportation system, along the International
Mid-Continent Trade Corridor, to improve both trade
competitiveness and the quality of life in North America.
www.nascocorridor.com/pages/about/about.htm
NASCO Super-Corridor with
connecting routes
NASCO:
North America’s Super Corridor Coalition
NASCO’s stated mission is to develop the world’s first international,
integrated and secure multi-modal corridor system to support international
trade. Originally the I-35 Corridor Coalition, focus is on interstates 35/29/94
“From almost immediately after” NAFTA took effect, “NASCO has sought out
and backed Corridor-related initiatives to enhance border security, safety and
the operational efficiency of the existing transportation infrastructure.”
www.nascocorridor.com
NASCO:
Promoting “endless more”
“the
US in general, and our Corridor through its heartland
in particular, face daunting challenges in adapting to
absorb the coming tsunami of burgeoning cargo freight
tonnage.”
www.nascocorridor.com
NAFTA Super-Corridors
Trans -Texas Corridor not just a highway
The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) is a proposed multiuse, statewide network of transportation routes in
Texas …As envisioned, each route will include:
• separate lanes for passenger vehicles and large
trucks ( six automobile lanes, four truck lanes)
• freight railways ( two lines)
• high-speed commuter railways
• infrastructure for utilities including water lines, oil
and gas pipelines, and transmission lines for
electricity, broadband and other telecommunications
services (on the outer edge)
Recommended Routes
TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) will oversee
Continental
Integration
– North
American Union
Trans-Texas Corridor
planning, construction
and ongoing
maintenance,
although
private vendors will be responsible for much of the daily
operations and collect the tolls.
_________________________________________
www.keeptexasmoving.org/projects/
NAFTA Super-Corridors
Trans-Texas Corridor Water Threats
Water is one of fourteen major concerns of the Corridor
Watch Group. Here is what they say about water:
Potential threats to Texas’ water created by the Trans Texas
Corridor are very serious.
Water pipelines are in the plan.
The Trans-Texas Corridor Plan acknowledges … that water
pipelines will facilitate the transfer of "water over long
distances."
It appears that water wells placed on the Trans-Texas
Corridor (state land) are not presently subject to any local
control or regulation. HB-3588 (legislation) allows TxDOT to
lease land along the Corridor for any commercial or
industrial purpose, could that include water mining? If so,
such enterprisesContinental
apparently willIntegration
not be subject
to regulation
– North
American Union
by ground water conservation districts.
________________________________________________
www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/cw-i-water.htm
NAFTA Super-Corridors
Trans-Texas Corridor Other Threats
Corridor Watch Issues & Concerns
Confiscation of land by eminent domain
-- 584,000 acres of farm and ranch land
Loss of business in hundreds of communities
Environmental issues – air & water contamination, loss of
habitat & ecosystems fragmentation
Costs
– Misplaced transportation spending
Continental
Integration
– North
American Union
-- Toll income
to foreign
Spanish Cintra
Corporation!
Trans Texas Corridor
Part of a Larger Scheme
It’s not just Texas. It’s part of the
Super-Corridor network going
through Kansas City to Canada
and Mexico
Continental Integration – North American Union
NAFTA Super-Corridors
Trans Texas Corridor: Other Threats
Monthly Review: NAFTA Corridor Threats
"The human and environmental costs of the Texas leg
of the I-35 NAFTA corridor cannot be kept secret
indefinitely. The final toll of the damage caused by the
NAFTA corridor system, which will entail more lost jobs,
the increased use of fossil fuels, and continuing
dependence on imported oil, will also include mass
consumption of prime farmlands, displaced
populations, disrupted communities, and widespread
environmental damage."
___________________________________________
“The NAFTA Corridors: Offshoring U.S. Transportation Jobs to Mexico,” Richard
D. Vogel /www.monthlyreview.org/0206vogel.htm
Continental Integration – North American Union
NAFTA Super-Corridors
Labor Threats
“Undeniably, both the U.S. and Mexican labor
movements have suffered serious setbacks under
NAFTA. But the offshoring of U.S. production and
transportation jobs and the wholesale exploitation of
Mexican workers are just one facet of global capital’s
assault on international labor and must be considered
in that context ….
“The preparation for this massive offshoring has been
in progress for more than a decade—the ongoing
privatization of the Mexican economy and the ground
transportation rules of NAFTA are facilitating the plan
to divert jobs to the south.”
_________________________________________________
“The NAFTA Corridors: Offshoring U.S. Transportation Jobs to Mexico.” Richard
D. Vogel www.monthlyreview.org/0206vogel.htm
Kansas Inland Port:
Nub of Super-Corridors
“Located in the heart of America at the hub of the
transcontinental and NAFTA trade corridors, Kansas
City is a center of choice for warehousing,
manufacturing and distribution. Business has prospered
due in large part to the region's abundant, multi-modal
transportation network.”
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Kansas Inland Port
Canamex: NAFTA Super-Corridor
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Continental Integration – North American Union
Canamex:
NAFTA Super-Corridor
CANAMEX Trade Corridor was established by Congress
the year after NAFTA was approved.
“The CANAMEX Trade Corridor, as defined by
Congress in the 1995 National Highway Systems
Designation Act, is a High Priority Corridor.”
www.canamex.org
Canamex:
NAFTA Super-Corridor
Canamex lists as accomplishments:
2Q 2002 • Construction on the I-10/I-19
interchange in Tucson, a key project for the
CANAMEX Corridor, began in June.
4Q 2002 • The Governor's CANAMEX Task Force
reports attracting over $86 million in federal
funds for the Hoover Dam Bypass project.
www.canamex.org/accomplishments.asp
I-5 Corridor in California:
Another NAFTA Super-Corridor
“The Shasta Valley Enterprise Zone, located in the
scenic valleys of Northern California...[is] a statedesignated economic development area....”
Shasta Business Park promotes itself....
“We Have All Of The Great Connections.
Trucking and the I-5 Corridor
Located along Interstate 5, the largest truck corridor in
the United States, the Shasta Valley Enterprise Zone is
uniquely positioned to offer companies access to direct
routes to Canada and Mexico (NAFTA Treaty Nations),
and all international sea and airports in between.”
www.shastabusinesspark.com/enterprisezone.html
I-5 Corridor in California
Moving Water
“Crystal Geyser Spring Water Bottling Company has
purchased 30 acres of land in the Shasta Business Park
to construct what will become the largest spring water
bottling plant in the World. The water from Mt. Shasta is
the purest of all water. From carbon dating, its age of
over 8,100 years and the filtration processes it has gone
through makes it the very best. This same water is
available to the residents of this integrated community.”
www.shastabusinesspark.com/enterprisezone.html
How Does the SPP Threaten Our Water ?
?
“Bulk Water exports will take
place from Canada – Manitoba,
Newfoundland, Quebec, and
British Columbia – in two to five
years.”
Paul Michael Wihbey GWEST, Sept 22, 2006,
Global Business Forum Banff
WATER
EXPORT
Security & Prosperity Partnership
Water is on the Table !
The Minutes of a 2004 meeting of the
Task Force on the Future of North
America which drafted the SPP was
leaked by the Council of Canadians. It
says:
“No item - not Canadian water, not
Mexican oil, not American anti-dumping
laws - is ‘off the table;' rather contentious
or intractable issues will simply require
more time to ripen politically.”
No item – not even
_______________________________
Canadian water is off the
Continental Integration – North American Union
SPP table !
Leaked report of the Task Force on the Future of North America,
2004. Council of Canadians Website
www.canadians.org/browse_categories.htm?COC_token=23@@3
6cbd3e6423c06caef59921ad88ba514&step=2&catid=374&iscat=1
Security & Prosperity Partnership
Water and Oil are on the Table !
The leaked report goes on to say:
“Mexican oil and Canadian water - are invested
with greater emotion than are those same
natural resources in other countries.
...Consequently, policy recommendations on
these issues are best considered long term
goals.”
Water a long term
goal of the SPP !
Continental Integration – North American Union
The Push to Sell Canada’s Water
Blue Gold!!!
Money Week, which provides analysis of the week's
financial news, with practical investment advice says:
“There are countries that have an over-abundance of water
– and here there are opportunities for sale to other
countries. Canada, for example, has the same amount of
water as China, but just 2.3% of its population. Brazil has
far less need of its water than many of its neighbours. As
the value of water rises, countries like these will start to
export their spare reserves to those more in need – and
willing to pay. Pipelines will spring up, connecting states
and countries. Tankers will transport water across the sea
as often as they do oil. Water will be on the move. And
those who can transfer it will be there to benefit.”
_____________________________________________
Merryn Sommerset Webb. Money Week. May 12, 2006 How to profit from the world's
water crisis www.moneyweek.com/file/17125/look-to-a-very-liquid-investment.html
The Push to Sell Canada’s Water !
October 2005 –The Walrus -- Elizabeth May responds
“The fact that climate change will result in persistent droughts on our prairies
and reduced water levels in the Great Lakes is a good argument against
engineering water transfers south of the border. We are fighting for an Annex
agreement to the Great Lakes Charter that will prevent diversions, with climate
change cited as a reason. Adapting to climate change will certainly mean
keeping our water wthin natural watersheds and basins. All the more reason that
we cannot risk diversions or mega-dams, and why we must reduce fossil-fuel
emissions.”
--- Elizabeth May, at the time, Sierra Club of Canada Director, now leader of the Green Party of Canada
Water Warning - Get Ready for Floods, Dams and
Selling our Water to the US by Chris Wood.
Threats to Our Communities and Water:
NAFTA Increases the Threat
North American
Free Trade Agreement
•
Water was not excluded from NAFTA. This means water transported
commercially across the US/Canada border would probably not survive a
NAFTA corporate challenge if any government tries to limit the quantity
being exported.
•
The revised Great Lakes Compact is intended to stop large withdrawals
from the Great Lakes Watershed, but also has loopholes which allow the
siphoning off of water for sale by the bottled water industry.
•
Canada has much fresh water eyed by entrepreneurs and investors for
export to lucrative US market as well as global markets.
Threats to Our Communities and Water:
NAFTA Increases the Threat
North American
Free Trade Agreement
Such exports set a dangerous precedent for treating water as a commodity
which means the price is set by the market place. This impacts all
communities. As the water managers of Aurora CO and Southern NV Water
Authority say to the reporter in the 10/21/07 NYT Magazine cover story “The
Perfect Drought”:
"Mulroy and Binney each told me they think a true free-market water
exchange would create too many winners and losers. 'What you would have
is affluent communities being able to buy the lifeblood right out from under
those that are less well heeled,' Mulroy said."
SPP and NAFTA Super-Corridors
States Fight Back!
?
States say No Way to SPP &
NAFTA Super-Corridors
•
19 states introduced resolutions in 2007 calling
on the U.S. to get out of the SPP
•
Resolutions passed both Houses in Idaho,
Montana, and Oklahoma and were sent to the
U.S. Congress
•
Texas sent bill to Governor requiring the attorney
general to produce a report on how
NAFTA/SPP/NACC/WTO/GATS would effect
state law
SPP and NAFTA Super-Corridors
States Fight Back!
?
Idaho says No Way to SPP &
NAFTA Super-Corridors
“THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the
First Regular Session of the Fifty-ninth Idaho
Legislature, the House of Representatives and the
Senate concurring therein, that we emphatically urge
and petition the Congress of the United States and
particularly the congressional delegation representing
the state of Idaho to use all efforts, energies and
diligence to withdraw the United States from any
further participation in the Security and Prosperity
Partnership of North America or any other bilateral or
multilateral activity that seeks to advance, authorize,
fund or in any way promote the creation of any
structure to create any form of North American Union.”
Security & Prosperity Partnership
Montebello Canada August 2007
What
While heads of state met at Montebello to discuss next
steps for the SPP, protestors turned out to make their
voices heard.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Security & Prosperity Partnership
Energy Workers Respond to SPP
C
a
n
On August 18, 2007 energy workers from Mexico, the United States, Canada and Quebec
together with the Four North American networks fighting NAFTA and the Security
and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) met in Montreal. They issued a Solidarity saying
in part:
“We share the concerns of civil society movements that the
SPP is a new and powerful instrument created by
government and corporate elites to shape the destinies of
our nations without democratic participation or
oversight. We reject the security agenda of the SPP which
links NAFTA and trade to the limiting of civil liberties, mass
surveillance, racial profiling and the failed and disastrous
military and foreign policies of George W. Bush. We
challenge the neo-liberal assumptions of prosperity which
have led to increasing disparities of wealth and power in
each of our countries.”
Security & Prosperity Partnership
Energy Workers Respond to SPP
C
a
n
Solidarity Statement continues:
“These and other elements of the SPPcorporate energy agenda are
unsustainable and sacrifice the needs of
workers and communities in each
country to the profits of energy
corporations. This is an agenda that
fails to address the need for each
country to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, including a new round of far
reaching goals after 2012.”
Security & Prosperity Partnership
Energy Workers Respond to SPP
CSolidarity Statement conclusion:
a
n Energy policies will
shape our world in the 21
century. These policies will lead either to
democratic, sustainable development or to global
environmental disaster and new wars of
aggression. Energy workers, their unions and
social partners in Mexico, Canada and the United
States will act together for democratic,
sustainable national development of our energy
resources.
Digby Neck--Is This Our Future?
Digby Neck & Islands
Present Economy:
• Tradition of community economic
development
• Sustainable
• Small Scale, localized
• Community based
• Participatory
• Eco -tourism
• Retirement area
• Small scale fishing
• Marine research
• Learning , discovery
• Intermediate technology
emphasis
In Stark Opposition ~> Basalt Assault
Digby Neck & Islands
Clayton Concrete mega quarry is
tied to global economy
• Industrialization of unique
bioregion
• Undemocratic imposition on
local community by foreign
corporation
• Derails local sustainable
development by introducing large
scale, unsustainable industry
• Cumulative impacts as more
industries attracted by deep sea
port
Industrial aspects of a quarry
• Part of SPP grand plan!!!
Digby Neck – Model Economy
vs the SPP Basalt Assault
Citizens have said No Way
Sierra Club has fought with them
Key government panel just
rejected quarry as unsustainable!
Community by community
we must see the big picture
and reject the SPP!!
Resources to Resist Water Privatization
and Commodification
Sierra Club www.Sierraclub.org/CAC/water
Alliance for Democracy www.thealliancefordemocracy.org
 Food and Water Watch www.foodandwaterwatch.org
Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation www.savemiwater.org
Defending Water for Life in Maine http://defendingwaterinmaine.org
Save Our Groundwater (NH) www.saveourgroundwater.org
McCloud Watershed Council www.mccloudwatershedcouncil.org
Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton (CA)
Felton Flow www.feltonflow.org
www.cccos.org
Resources to Resist the
SPP/Super-Corridors
Stay tuned to these websites to learn more and take action:
 Texas Corridor Watch www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/index.htm
Council of Canadians www.canadians.org/
 Common Frontiers www.commonfrontiers.ca/
 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives www.policyalternatives.ca
Judicial Watch www.judicialwatch.org
Conservative websites in the U.S. are also sounding the alarm about threats
from the SPP and NAFTA Super-Corridors, e.g.,
 World Net
www.worldnet
 Phyllis Spivey www.newswithviews.com/Spivey/phyllis3.htm
 Steven Yates www.newswithviews.com/Yates/steven.htm
End Notes
This power point was researched and created by Janet M
Eaton, PhD, independent researcher and educator, and the Sierra
Club of Canada’s International Liaison to the Corporate
Accountability Committee and Water Privatization Task Force.
It was revised and updated October 2007 for presentation in
Tucson AZ by Ruth Caplan, Chair of the Sierra Club’s Water
Privatization Task Force and Coordinator of the Alliance for
Democracy’s Defending Water for Life campaign.
Continental Integration –orth American Union