“We recognize and welcome the interests and concerns that differ- ent sectors of society have expressed in relation to the FTAA. Business and other sectors of production, labour, environmental and academic groups have been particularly active in this matter. We encourage these and other sectors of civil societies to present their views...”
Ministers Responsible for Trade in the FTAA participating countries, San José, Costa Rica, March 1998
At the sixth Ministerial meeting, ministers highlighted the need to foster dialogue with civil society, and directed the Com- mittee of Government Representatives on the Participation of Civil Society to forward to the Negotiating Groups the Civil Society submissions in response to the open invitation, which refer to their respective issue areas, and those related to the FTAA process in general. Ministers reiterated the importance of the provision of technical assistance to smaller economies in order to facilitate their participation in the FTAA.
The Fourth Report of the Committee of Government Representatives on the Participation of Civil Society (SOC), which describes the activities of the SOC as well as the range of contributions received from civil society during this phase, was received. Ministers also welcomed receipt of the report on Best Practices and Illustrative Examples of Consultations with Civil Society at the National/Regional Level that was prepared by the SOC and instructed the SOC to make recom- mendations to the TNC on the means to broaden the mecha- nisms for disseminating information on the discussions, drawing upon the experiences of countries for distributing information to their civil societies.
Ministers also recognized the decision to hold meetings with civil society, in conjunction with the regular meetings of the SOC, focusing on issues that are topics of discussion in these negotiations and including a broad representation of FTAA government officials and civil society including busi- ness, labour, agricultural producers, NGOs, academics, rural and indigenous groups.
But apart from the formal spaces that the FTAA has es- tablished for civil society participation, it is widely known that the Free Trade Area is rejected by many social actors
in Latin America. During the FTAA Summit in 2002 not only several civil society organisations and networks, but also individuals from different sectors, gathered to protest against its implementation.
Protest and advocacy have been the main strategies uti- lized by civil society. From the uprising in Chiapas in 1995 that coincided with NAFTA’s entry into force in Mexico to the protests against WTO in Seattle in 1999, from Brazil- ians voting against Brazilian access to FTAA in 2001 to demonstrations against it in Ecuador in 2002, civil society is making a push against further trade liberalization.
As these public events demonstrate, civil society opposi- tion to the FTAA has been moderately effective in raising public awareness of the FTAA, but it is not clear if the move- ment has had real influence in changing policymakers’ opin- ions. The superficial inclusion of civil society recommenda- tions into the FTAA draft text is an evidence of this:
“After travelling 900 kilometres, over mountains, through cities and communities, I remember that we entered, with green pennants and rainbow flags (the symbol of the in- digenous and campesino, or small farmer, movements). We also carried a resplendent sun across which was writ- ten “No to the FTAA! Another America is Possible!” and a giant letter more than 200 meters in length, which con- tained proposals and alternatives to free trade, written by the Indians and campesinos of Southern Ecuador. We shouted, we sang, we ran. Not our lips, but our hearts chanted, “We don’t want to be a North American colo- ny! And we DO want to be Latin America, sovereign and free!”. From the podium we spoke, the small farmers and indigenous people of the continent. We told them: “You were born in cradles of gold and you steal the peoples´ wealth, and so you don’t feel our suffering. We shouted at them, “With the FTAA will come more pain for our children and the children of our children41”, says a letter
written by a farmer who participated in the FTAA Summit in Ecuador.
One of the turning points in the discussion of the FTAA was the impossibility of arriving to an agreement by the President’s Declaration on this issue during the IV Summit of the Americas in 2005 in Argentina. While in the street demonstrations where occurring to protest against FTAA and the US participation in the Summit, the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, was participating in the parallel “People’s Summit”. At the same time, the Heads of States gathered in the Summit’s venue to prepare a final declara- tion that did not include an agreement on FTAA.
“Some member States maintain that we should take into account the difficulties that the process of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations has faced, and that we recognize the significant contribution that the processes of economic integration and trade liberalization in the Americas can and should make to the achievement of the Summit objectives to create jobs to fight poverty and strengthen democratic governance. Therefore, we re- main committed to the achievement of a balanced and comprehensive FTAA Agreement that aims at expanding trade flows and, at the global level, trade free from sub- sidies and trade-distorting practices, with concrete and substantive benefits for all, taking into account the dif- ferences in the size and the levels of development of the participating economies and the special needs and spe- cial and differential treatment of the smaller and vulner- able economies. We will actively participate to ensure a significant outcome of the Doha Round that will reflect the measures and proposals mentioned in the previous paragraph. We shall continue to promote the established practices and activities in the FTAA process that provide transparency and encourage participation of civil society” said the Final Declaration.
However, there are also other networks and CSOs that en- gage in the FTAA process through research and then lobbying for their findings to be taken into account. In 2006, a large
11
group of regional networks42 addressed a letter to the Chair of the Trade Negotiations Committee expressing their concern about the secrecy of the negotiation of a FTAA and urging for the publication of the its negotiating texts. Most of these networks are focused on development issues but there are also research centres that investigate topics in this area.
Based on these approaches, we can identify two main ways of engaging in the FTAA process. One consists of pro- tests and demonstrations that usually take place in parallel to a Summit. These have helped to install the issue in the public agenda.
The other is the participation of networks and CSOs in the official mechanisms available to channel civil society partic- ipation, which is the Committee of Government Representa- tives on the Participation of Civil Society. But even networks participating in the formal mechanism agree that this has not proven effective. In the letter address to the Chair of the Negotiations Committee they expressed the following:
“Many of us have submitted documents to the Committee of Government Representatives on the Participation of Civil Society, but it is an inadequate mechanism. Even if all submissions were accurately and completely trans- mitted to the ministers, the result is not the participa- tion of civil society in this process but simply a one-way
communication. It is impossible for us to engage in a serious dialogue on the FTAA when we do not know the actual content of the negotiations”43.