Mexican trade deal
threatens our future

™) ANADIAN businesses shouldn’t even try to
* compete with the products produced in low wage
countries like Mexico, says International Trade
,and Industry Minister Michael Wilson. You
jheard it, we shouldn’t even try to compete.

Canadians, claims Wilson, must however rely on our
“brains, ingenuity, imaginations, and hard work” to
compete against low wage Mexican labour.

For those of us who are woodworkers, we are asked to
believe Michael Wilson when he says “we must reach
further to provide the high quality, the high value-
added products and services that will support a contin-
ued improvement in our standards of living.”

What Wilson and his Tory government have failed to
do is provide Canadians with an accurate picture of
what is happening now in Mexico.

Nearly 2,000 industries are enjoying Mexico’s com-
petitive advantages: Low wages, corrupt unionism,
poor health and safety protection for workers, and
environmental degradation.

What Mr. Wilson is also failing to tell the Canadian
public about is that the Mexicans can produce just
about anything we can if given the raw materials.

One shining example of this is Volkswagen’s automo-
bile manufacturing plant in Puebla, Mexico where,
according to VW’s export director and vice-president of
sales, Mexican workers provide excellent craftsman-
ship to higher standards of quality than German
workers.

Just think, if Mexican workers can manufacture and
assemble German automobiles to the highest stan-
dards in the world, then there won’t be much difficulty
gon chem to manufacture value-added wood products
either.

The future of IWA - CANADA will, to a large extent, be
based on somehow getting more jobs out of a depleting
wood fibre base. That means that the forest industry
must create a value-added strategy for wood products.

However, now that talks are underway to create a
North American free trade zone it is doubtful at best
that this air-fairy world of value-added production will
ever materialize.

As reported in the last issue of the Lumberworker a
leading industry consultant says that, unless govern-
ments legislate against it, raw logs and lumber will
probably be shipped to Mexico for remanufacturing.

Let’s not kid ourselves. IWA-CANADA members are
by no means exempt from the threat of fully integrated
trade with Mexico and the US.

We've already lost jobsin value-added manufacturing
industries under the Free Trade Agreement with the
US.

Hundreds of jobs have disappeared in Union locals in
Ontario as the furniture industry has been punished by
US. low wage producers. In B.C., hundreds of jobs were
lost in the window and door industry.

A free trade deal which will include Mexico will cause
further irreparable damage to our union.

If we in IWA - CANADA are ever going to see a value-
added industry develop on our side of the border then
we will have to fight against the North-American free
trade pact which, under a Tory government, will further
give up sovereignty over our own resources.

We Baas to elect governments that will ensure that
logs and raw lumber are kept in Canada for manufactur-

ing, remanufacturing and adding values.

LUIMBERU!ORKER

Official publication of ['WA-CCANADA

NORMAN GARCIA, JACK MUNRO... President
Editor GERRY STONEY . . 1st Vice-President
NEIL MENARD . . 2nd Vice-President
5th Floor, FERNIE VIALA . . 3rd Vice-President
1285 W. Pender Street ROGER STANYER.. 4th Vice-President
Vancouver, B.C. FRED MIRON... 5th Vice-President
V6E 4B2 TERRY SMITH . . Secretary-Treasurer

BROADWAY GHEGEE PRINTERS LTD

\S THIS

cue bers LET'S See WHAT
END OF THE THEY CAN DO

TALKS ABOUT
VALUE -ADDED---

OR THE LUMBERWORKER

INGRID RICE

Trade deal with Mexico part of
‘Enterprises for Americas’ plan

When Canadian Trade
Minister, Michael Wilson met
with his American and Mexi-
can counterparts in Toronto
on June 12th to lay the ground
work for a North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAF-
TA) it signified another step
in George Bush’s visionary
agenda of hemisphere free
trade.

In June of 1990, Bush be-
gan to pursue Ronald Rea-
gan’s “Enterprises for Ameri-
cas” agenda of increasing the
US.’s economic hegemony
over nations in the western
hemisphere.

And there is every sign that
Bush is pulling it off. Only a
week after the Toronto meet-
ing, the U.S. signed what is
now called the “Rose Garden
Agreement” between itself
and Argentina, Brazil, Para-
guay and Uruguay in order to
relax trade barriers with these
debt-ridden countries and the
US.

Ever astute, Michael Wil-
son says freer trade that will
include the entire western
hemisphere “is bound to come
in the next century.”

Well, it is not surprising,
Wilson is misleading Canadi-
ans again. Free trade in this
hemisphere is coming right
now. That means free trade
based on the exploitation of
resources of countries like
Canada and Brazil, the exploi-
tation of labour of countries
like Mexico and Uruguay and
the expansion of the United
State’s corporate empire.

One has to ask what's in it
for Canada. Why blindly fol-
low the U.S. into these so
called “free trade” agreements
when we've already lost hun-
dreds of thousands of jobs
after the signing of the FTA
with the U.S. in January of
1989?

John Weekes, Canada’s new
chief negotiator for the NAF-
TA, gives us a few clues. In
early June, Weekes said Can-
ada would like to gain im-
proved access to U.S. (mili-

tary) government procure-
ment and gain more power in
the U.S. financial service
markets.

So at least part of the rea-
son is that Canada’s big banks
want to expand their opera-
tions while corporate Canada
gets a bigger piece of the Pen-
tagon’s defence budget.

The Mulroney government
isn’t making any claims that
new jobs will be created in
Canada or that we will have
cheaper consumer products
under a NAFTA. It simply
says that we have to join the
deal or be left on the sidelines.

The issues of
human rights and
the rights of
labour are being
ignored during
trade talks

As for the Americans, Pres-
ident Bush says of the NAF-
TA: “It’s going to be good for
the working man of this coun-
try and good for the environ-
ment.”

Those statements of course,
fly into the face of what lab-
our and environmental orga-
nizations are predicting for
things to come.

In order to get Congres-
sional support for the negoti-
ations the Bush administra-
tion slapped together a last
minute declaration that it
would conduct an environ-
mental assessment of the
NAFTA and seek a memoran-
dum of understanding on Oc-
cupational Health and Safety
guarantees for Mexican work-
ers.

Other lukewarm assuranc-
es, given by Bush include un-
specified training for U.S.
workers, job search assist-

ance and some cash for job
losers. A U.S. Department of
Commerce study predicts
40% job loss in some sectors
such as auto parts, steel,
shoes and textiles. The news
will be worse for Canadian
workers.

So to placate the opposi-
tion in Canada, a press secre-
tary of the International
Trade Ministry announced
the government is “working
out a process for consultation
that will enable the govern-
ment to get views of labour
groups and business.”

That announcement, of
course, came two days after
Wilson opened up the trade
talks. Neither the U.S. nor
Canadian governments have
addressed or will address the
issue of human rights and the
rights of labour. Despite the
routine summary execution of
Unionists and Human Rights
Activists in Mexico, not a
word on these topics will be
spoken by either the Mulro-
ney or Bush government.

Ed Broadbent, former fed-
eral leader of the New Demo-
cratic Party and now Presi-
dent of the International Cen-
tre for Human Rights and
Democratic Development has
told the Mulroney govern-
ment that, as a democracy,
Canada “should ensure that
basic human rights and dem-
ocratic principles are recog-
nized and implemented in any
country with whom we are
going to establish extremely
close relationships.”

Broadbent also said that
the parties to a NAFTA
should negotiate within or
parallel to a trade deal, a
social charter that will include
those rights and principles.

Said Broadbent: “All citi-
zens want their rights as trade
unionists protected: All citi-
zens want their cherished
democratic rights as citizens
protected.”

That is not what the corpo-
rate interests want to hear.
That is not going to be part of
the right wing “Enterprises
for Americas” agenda.

LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1991/5