According to an April 12 emailing from Global Exchange, the Free Trade Area of the Americas is in deep trouble. And it couldn't happen to a more deserving target.
The meeting in Miami last November - the one where the "Miami model" as a means of crushing public dissent entered the political lexicon - set up a "blueprint" for making all of the Americas one giant, free-trade, corporate playground. But since then, there has been no progress toward that end. ("Progress" is not a word that fits easily in the mouth in a case like this.)
Meetings in February and March only managed to agree on dates for more meetings. Now, even the date for the next meeting is up in the air.
Brazil in particular has been doing the heavy lifting here, resisting pressure from the US to give transnational corporations freer reign and to "open its borders to imports" - otherwise known as turning its customs offices into help files for corporate profit. What makes Brazil's position a little easier is that the US is refusing to consider ending its agricultural price supports.
Apparently the US feels that free trade, like taxes, are for "the little people."
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