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The
Nuts and Bolts of "Free Trade" Extortion
by
Toni Solo
October
14, 2003
With
the Cancun trade talks buried, the United States and the European Union are
busy working out preferential bilateral and regional trade deals. These deals
will pre-empt moves by developing countries to get some justice out of the
World Trade Organization and its fellow enforcers of global "free
trade" pillage, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Central America is among the first to savour the bitter taste of the
post-Cancun ground rules as the United States hastens to close its grip even
tighter on the strategic prize of the isthmus.
The
Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is inseparable from Plan Puebla
Panama [1] in the US hemispheric strategy to consolidate
regional political and economic dominance. Large scale investment envisaged
under Plan Puebla Panama involves linking Mexico to Panama through Central
America. CAFTA is also a necessary step towards creating a Free Trade Area of
the Americas. Central America will be crossed by north-south road and maritime
links to move goods more quickly east-west across the isthmus via road and rail
corridors.
As
usual energy is the key. In 2002, around 600,000 barrels a day of crude oil and
petroleum products passed through the Panama Canal. Of that around 63% was
moving from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Crude oil made up about 44% of the oil
moving from the Pacific to the Atlantic. As energy needs increase and oil
reserves elsewhere diminish, the influence of energy transnationals is
increasingly driving US and European policy in Latin America.
The
first stage of Plan Puebla Panama is the Central American Electrical
Interconnection System (SIEPAC). Due for completion in 2006, SIEPAC will
install power lines connecting 37 million consumers in Panama, Costa Rica,
Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The cost is an estimated $320
million. Subsequent stages will develop power links between Guatemala and
Mexico and also integrate Belize into the system. A long-term objective is to
provide a market for gas and oil exploited by multinational energy companies in
Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico.
The
wider effects of Plan Puebla Panama will damage local fisheries and
agriculture, destroy the already fragile biodiverse environment and multiply
maquila sweatshop "free trade" light industrial zones. Political
implications of the strategy are profoundly anti-democratic. The constantly
encroaching demands of multinational business will mean persistent denial of
local people's rights and interests.
Already
devastated, the region's remaining precious forestry reserves like the Bosawas
reserve in Nicaragua will virtually disappear. Water resources will be
ruthlessly exploited by the multinational corporations that take them over.
Weak central governments will be unable to control pollution as oil and gas
exploration and exploitation increase.
European
and US corporate investment buzzards have already landed. They include among
many others, International Paper, Monsanto, Coastal Power, Enron, Teco Energy,
Duke Energy, Harken Energy through its links with MKJ Exploration and Global
Energy Development, Applied Energy Services, Spain's ENDESA, Union Fenosa and
Iberdrola, Portugal's Eletricidade de Portugal, the SIT Global dry canal
consortium, Bell South, European exploration firm Perenco, Scudder Latin
American Power Fund, Sweden's Telia Swedcom and the Dutch ING Bank. Their
operations in the region are accompanied and facilitated strategically by the
Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank through straitjacket
conditional loans to governments, further increasing the region's external debt.
So
people in Central America continue to lose the benefits of their natural
resources and infrastructure to multinationals from Europe and the United
States. Their governments are coaxed or coerced into taking loans from the
World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the IMF to subsidise
processes and infrastructure needed to facilitate the multinational jamboree.
The multinationals pick up cut-price concessions and preferential investment
deals so as to cream off exorbitant profits. The Central American peoples pick
up the tab in higher utility bills, public service cutbacks and escalating debt
repayment, decade after decade.
CAFTA
- the Nicaraguan experience [2]
CAFTA
itself involves a tiny proportion of US trade in Latin America and only 0.8% of
overall US trade. But it is a vital precedent for the US to carry into future
deals with larger blocs like Mercosur, made up of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and
Argentina. As ever, by virtue of its position, Nicaragua is a prime target. Its
experience is emblematic for the region as a whole.
It
may cost Nicaragua as much as US$1 billion to implement all the provisions of
the final CAFTA package. That money will come from loans that will add to the
country's already crippling debt. One simple example of this is the
introduction of new requirements for farm produce under the US Anti
Bio-Terrorism law. Central American produce will have to satisfy stringent
inspection, registration and certification requirements before being allowed
into the US. That administrative burden will be borne by the region's
governments and passed on to producers, cutting their margins even more.
Nicaragua's experience of the US CAFTA approach is a touchstone for any country
facing US trade negotiators.
US
strategy in the CAFTA talks with Nicaragua has been to press for haste and then
paradoxically postpone vital issues until the latest moment possible. This
maximises the pressure on Nicaraguan negotiators to agree to the deal on offer
from the US in order to make the agreed deadline for the whole package. The US
team has deployed sharp tactical moves within that general strategy, for
example switching negotiating personnel without notice so as to disorientate
their Nicaraguan counterparts - a kind of good cop-bad cop psychological
warfare.
Another
favorite has been to present new undiscussed proposals long prepared by the US
team but completely new to the under-resourced Nicaraguans. The Nicaraguans
then have to patch up a position in short order with no time to work out in
detail the consequences of what they end up agreeing. Ecological issues are
almost entirely absent from the substance of the talks. This frees up the
option for multinationals to sue Nicaragua for indemnity should it subsequently
attempt to cancel CAFTA provisions so as to protect the country's already
ravaged natural environment.
In
the background lies the anxiety of the Nicaraguan government to qualify for the
Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative. To do so they
have to meet conditions imposed by the World Bank and the IMF. As usual the
requirements include privatization and interference in the country's domestic
legislation. In this case the privatization bazaar includes completion of sale
of the public telephone utility ENITEL [3] and the public energy
company Hidrogesa. A favorable report from the US CAFTA trade representatives
will help Nicaragua's case with the IMF and World Bank HIPC pawnbrokers.
These
pressures are compounded by bullying from individual US companies. The
intervention of Bell South in Nicaraguan telecommunications policies is a
typical example of a multinational pressuring a weak national government. The
Nicaraguan communications regulator Telcor had accepted market proposals from
former state owned phone utility Enitel, still not entirely privatized. Bell
South disliked the deal and went crying to US Trade Representatives Robert
Zoellick and Gloria Blue asking the US government to refuse further
concessionary trade deals with Nicaragua until Bell South's interests were
satisfied.
Nicaragua
is ill-placed to resist these strong arm tactics. It loses out across the
board. In terms of public health, environmental pollution, agriculture, CAFTA
is the worst of all worlds. But Nicaragua is in deep economic crisis and has
few options. The Ministry of Labour announced in September this year that unemployment
and underemployment is now at 45% with over 50% of economically active people
working in the informal sector. These official statistics certainly understate
the reality.
Against
that background, pro-business negotiators gush positive about CAFTA's ability
to attract investors. Trade officials enthuse that at least four textile
companies are interested in moving to Nicaragua as well as a US company
considering whether to base its prefabricated housing production in the
country. Chiquita (United Brands) has said it is interested in moving its
pineapple production to Nicaragua. These are the pathetic employment incentives
on offer to justify the CAFTA package.
That
kind of investment can only bode ill for Nicaraguan workers. Even now, lock
outs and arbitrary dismissals of unionised workers are common in Nicaragua's
free trade zones. CAFTA will make things worse. Trade negotiators have referred
ominously to US concerns about the Nicaraguan labor code pointing out that
CAFTA has made available over US$6 million for regional
"improvements" to local employment law.
Public
interest and economic policy - a seamless web
In
health policy CAFTA will make it harder for Nicaragua to produce or import
generic medicines to meet its health needs. The US wants to increase the life
of patent controls from 20 to 25 years. No concession is being made to exempt
medicines for epidemic illnesses like AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria or other worldwide
diseases. Like so much else vital to ordinary people in Nicaragua, the CAFTA
talks assign a low priority to public health and the implications for it of
economic policy.
Mountain
leprosy (leishmaniasis) has now become endemic in Nicaragua in the so-called
"mining triangle" between the towns of Jinotega and Matagalpa and the
northern Atlantic Coast. But cases are also appearing in the west of the
country. 2200 cases were reported in 2002. Medical observers believe the
increase is due to increased migration of rural families to mountain areas in
search of land. Rural migration patterns have changed over the last year.
Rather than move to the capital Managua as in the past, rural families are
moving to local urban centres and settling humid inland areas of the Atlantic
Coast.
This
migration is closely linked to the crisis in production of maize, rice and
beans and the climate change that has made subsistence farming on the
increasingly dry Pacific Coast untenable for thousands of smallholders. Finance
available nationally for basic grain production is less than US$1 per manzana
(1.4 acres). At a time when Nicaragua needs to double its basic grain
production to be self sufficient in those foods, commercial banks no longer
offer finance to basic grain producers. What finance exists comes almost
entirely from non-governmental organizations. While basic grain production is
left to wither away, Nicaraguan trade negotiators argue for even more
development of resource-wasteful cattle farming.
The
encroaching desertification of northwest and north central Nicaragua, (and the
bordering regions in neighbouring El Salvador and Honduras) makes water policy
for the area of crucial importance. With water next up for privatization,
consumer organizations and environmental groups in Nicaragua are pressing for
an independent water authority to protect the public interest. But despite
their calls being backed by the Natural Resources Ministry, the draft
legislation promoted by the Ministry of Trade and Commerce contemplates handing
Nicaragua's water resources wholesale to private companies with only notional
regulation.
The
argument offered against an independent water authority is that financing it
would be too costly. That may well be the case on current trends. In September
this year the Natural Resources Ministry declared it could not do its job for
lack of funds. The budget assigned to the Ministry makes it impossible to carry
out the environmental impact studies necessary to control industrial polluters.
"Disappeared"
states unable to protect their peoples
The
fundamental weakness of Nicaragua's government after over a decade of abject
loyalty to neo-liberal economic recipes is evident from the budgetary cuts
planned for 2004. Average cuts across all Ministries will be around 10% on the
already meagre and inadequate allocations through 2003. Plans to cut spending
on health, education and social services have already been announced. All the
Central American countries except Costa Rica face the same dilemma with CAFTA.
Under-resourced,
weak central governments of countries debilitated by decades of war and
regional economic crisis find themselves negotiating against the clock facing a
ruthless, well-prepared US team who have all the resources they need. The
outcome will be a debacle for people in Central America on every front. It may
well be true that CAFTA will create wealth for a small elite and for foreign
businesses. But even that wealth will be spirited out of the region leaving
governments weaker than ever and even more unable to meet the basic needs of
their peoples.
CAFTA
- a portcullis for "Fortress Western Hemisphere"?
One
good way to understand the vision driving US policy in Latin America is to
visit the web site of Global Energy Development Plc. [4]
This company, quoted on the London Stock Exchange, is a subsidiary of Harken
Energy, the vehicle George W. Bush used to dodge and deal his way into big
business before the first Gulf War. Global Energy Development shares the same
address as Harken Energy in Houston, Texas and all but one of its directors,
all long time cronies of George W. Bush. President Bush has still to shake off
suggestions of insider dealing while a Harken director back in 1990.
The
site uses an interesting graphic to explain its strategic vision. Entitled
"Fortress Western Hemisphere" the graphic is a map of the Americas
from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. One arrow curls around from north to south
somewhere in the Atlantic. Another curls up south to north somewhere in the
Pacific. The label explaining these arrows says succinctly, "Latin
American resources will supply North American demand". The language is
self-explanatory.
They
mean what they say.
Global
Energy Development Plc operates mainly in Colombia [5] and
Panama but has interests in Peru and Costa Rica. Right now, Harken Energy's
long time partner MKJ [6] exploration is about to sign a
deal for exploration rights in the most promising area of Nicaragua, 8000
square kilometres off the country's Atlantic Coast. Harken and MKJ are moving
into Nicaragua after having their hopes dashed on developing a similar field in
Costa Rica.
The
Costa Rican government cancelled development of the field following a negative
environmental impact report. Harken initially sued Costa Rica under the rules
of the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, a
Washington based institution associated with the World Bank. Harken sought an
astonishing US$57 billion indemnity (4 times Costa Rica's GDP) to compensate an
investment of scarcely US$15 million.
Then,
at the start of October this year Harken dropped its claim pending further
action in the Costa Rican courts and more negotiations with the Costa Rican
government. It is a fair surmise that Harken dropped its high profile case
against the Costa Rican government so as to mollify opposition in Nicaragua to
its presence there. Once countries like Nicaragua sign up to the CAFTA
agreement, Munchausen-syndrome claims like those from George W. Bush's business
associates in Harken Energy will be yet another weapon to intimidate
impoverished national governments into giving multinationals what they want,
backed up with the political, economic and military might of the United States.
Harken
Energy and Global Energy Development merit careful monitoring. Earlier this
year cash-strapped Harken nearly lost its AMEX stock exchange rating as a
redemption deadline loomed for a term note. [7] Another
shady Bush associate, Alan Quasha, also a former director of Harken, mobilised
his family's Virgin Island based Lyford Investments to save Harken's skin.
After
suspiciously complicated buy-back manoeuvres, Lyford now owns 62% of Harken.
Quasha's intervention saved the day. Now with the deal in Nicaragua, signs of a
possible settlement between Harken and Costa Rica, and reasonable exploitation
news from Colombia and Panama, Harken's share price is edging up. Various
factors will affect the market prices of Harken Energy and Global Energy
Development.
Ratification
of the CAFTA deal whose final details will be worked out in December this year
is vital for US multinationals to be able to compete on preferential terms
against their European rivals. Increased US support for Colombian President
Uribe's neutering of state-owned petroleum company ECOPETROL and the terror
campaign against rural families and trades unionists in oil and gas development
areas will be seen as protecting foreign oil investments.
Markets
will also view positively continued efforts by State Department regional policy
hit men, Otto Reich, John Maisto and Roger Noriega, [8] to
overthrow Hugo Chavez's democratically elected government in Venezuela. In
Ecuador and Bolivia, the success of popular resistance to government attempts
to sell off national resources hangs in the balance. CAFTA is an integral part
of these wider events. Harken's and Global Energy Deveopment's share prices
make an excellent barometer to see how well the Bush regime think they are
progressing towards "Fortress Western Hemisphere".
Toni
Solo is an activist based in Central America. He can be reached
at: tonisolo52@yahoo.com
* Trashing
Free Software – More Neo-Lib Flim-Flam
* Coming Soon
to the United States? Plan Condor, the Sequel
* How Do
You Like Your Elections - Fixed and Murky?
* Colombia:
The War on Terror as Waged by Outlaws: Interview with Caitriona Ruane
* Terrorists,
Their Friends and the Bogota 3
* Neo-liberal Nicaragua:
Neo Banana Republic
[1] For Plan Puebla
Panama see http://www.mesoamericaresiste.org/primeras/segundas/terceras/cuartas/rimbid.html;
http://www.eia.doe.gov (US Government's
Energy Information Administration)
[2] Information on
CAFTA and Nicaragua is drawn from reports through 2003 in the Nicaraguan
dailies :
* El Nuevo Diario (www.elnuevodiario.com.ni)
* La Prensa (www.laprensa.com.ni)
with supplementary
material on CAFTA from the NicaNet newsletter (www.nicanet.org)
[3] Honduran power
company Emce and Swedish telecommunications company Telia Swedtel, bid US$33mn
to win the first 40% of the privatization. Enitel employees hold the remaining
11%.
[4] Information on
Global Energy Development Plc is from their web site:
www.petroassist.com/Oil&Gas/jump.asp?Group=G&ContactID=1317
[5] For Harken Energy
in Colombia see: http://www.soberania.info/Articulos/articulo_028.htm
* Sean Donahue: The Other
Harken Energy Scandal: http://www.counterpunch.org/donahue0712.html
[6] Information on
Harken Energy and MKJ exploration dealings in Nicaragua from El Nuevo Diario, La
Prensa, and in Costa Rica in:
* Tico Times (www.ticotimes.net)
* Costa Rica AM news (www.amcostarica.com)
[7] For Harken Energy
and Global Energy Development stock and share information and analysis try the
following:
* http://cnbc.multexinvestor.com;
[8]
John Maisto is US representative to the Organization of American States. Roger
Noriega is Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Otto
Reich is US Special Envoy for Western Hemisphere Initiatives.