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Problems & solutions with Yanquis & corporations
In helping a friend who is doing some research, I came across this article. It is at a site with an “agenda,” but it is one that makes sense to me. They are “against bilateral trade and investment
agreements that are opening countries to the deepest forms of penetration by transnational corporations.”
The article is about protests in Africa in Jan. 2008 and what the article calls “EU-enforced neo-liberalism.” It points out that the European Union (EU) has put pressure on and been negotiating with 77 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific since 2002 to sign on to “Economic Partnership Agreements” (EPAs) -- sanctions were threatened if they didn’t sign. In general, this will result in local production in these countries being further exposed to big international corporations.
Then, I came across this article about Latin
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The European Union has put pressure on and been negotiating with 77 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific since 2002 to sign on to “Economic Partnership Agreements” (EPAs) -- sanctions were threatened if they didn’t sign.
In general, this will result in local production in these countries being further exposed to big international corporations.
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(South) America that is said to be flourishing now that America’s attention is elsewhere. So, what has happened in those 77 countries that has caused so many problems and what has happened in Latin America that has solved so many problems?
What has happened in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific -- THE PROBLEMS
One aspect of the Economic Partnership Agreements would be that export restrictions will be banned including the quotas on raw material exports (i.e. the quotas will be lifted). Related to agriculture, taxes on imported food will not be allowed nor will subsidies to local farmers be allowed. Another aspect would be that “the service sector and the rest of public services will be opened up to European corporations.” In addition, in the last years given the “Structural Adjustment Programs” (SAPs), “everything which promises any kind of profit has already been privatized.”
AND, the results have been that:| |
(1) local products are being replaced by “cheaper” products from European agribusinesses while local farmers lose their livelihoods and these countries become dependent on food imports and lose their ability to feed themselves,
(2) whole populations become dependent on those large corporations for their food safety (e.g. as they receive genetically modified foods and diseased meat, etc.),
(3) their governments lose out on the income from those import taxes,
(4) the public services provided by their governments suffer and/or their country is forced to privatize public services as part of the SAPs they have been pressured into, which leads to good health care and education for those who can pay and poor or no service for the poor,
(5) the unemployed former farmers (and any others unemployed due to imports) end up in city slums, being forced to migrate, or working for foreign corporations only interested in maximizing their profits as they exploit their workers,
(6) the costs of living continue to rise and living standards for the poor continue to be reduced,
(7) their protests are ignored, and
(8) the big powers are inclined to provoke conflicts and wars in order to gain more control in the case that regional corporations develop or regional power increases. |
What has happened in Latin America -- THE SOLUTIONS
The article and a good comment at the end mention a number of actions occurring in South America that in the past the US would have brought to an end (despite the article, I do assume that the US is still “busy” there). These actions also appear to be solutions at the same time, for example:| | (1) voters are electing “anti-Yanqui” leaders,
(2) Ecuador is indicating that it will not be renewing the lease on one of the largest US military bases in South America,
(3) a crisis between Columbia and Ecuador was settled by the Latin Americans themselves,
(4) Ecuador’s President fired some high level personnel because they “had allowed Ecuador’s intelligence apparatus to become ‘totally infiltrated and subjugated to the CIA,’”
(5) a new generation of economists has “silently and efficiently” been decoupling their economies from the dictates of the US. In other words, they have been reversing the neo-liberal restrictions and the forced privatizing that earlier on the US insisted upon and that the EU has more recently been pressuring for elsewhere in the world. |
Thankfully, those in the 77 countries being pressured DO seem to understand the real problems, just as the South Americans have. Now it is time for the North Americans to get their act together.
My own opinion is that mixed economies are the best until something more enlightened turns up. I also believe that there should be state-run and/or non-profit health care, education, and utilities available to all citizens. In addition, the most notorious corporations need to be closed down, and those remaining need to be much more closely regulated once the regulations are tightened up.
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Marie K.
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