In Seoul, South Korea, this past Friday 10,000 people took to the streets in a candle light vigil to oppose US beef imports that many fear may be tainted with mad cow disease. Overnight, the number of peaceful protesters doubled and by Saturday night, 20,000 - 25,000 South Koreans held candles and raised their voices against American beef imports.
I joined the protests on Saturday to learn more.
George Bush and Hugo Chavez, former political enemies, announced plans this morning to dismantle the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, replacing it instead with the North American Fair Trade Agreement, also NAFTA.
“The new agreement marks a turning point in US-Venezuela relations,” said Juan Johnston of the North American Monitor of Bribery in Latin America (NAMBLA). “It also underscores the magnitude of recent growth in demand for ethically produced goods.”
Presidential election campaign 2008 is well underway. And already the grade school politics are brought to the election playground.
In recent news, both Democratic front runners, in an attempt to woo voters, called for renegotiations of NAFTA. They also threatened to pull out of the trade agreement if U.S. demands aren’t met. Clearly a case of, “do what I want because our economic and military might can beat up your economic and military might.”
The North American Free Trade Agreement, has been under scrutiny since its inception.
Thankfully we have Republican Candidate John McCain to defend this groundbreaking trade agreement.
NAFTA isn’t perfect. It was the first time a free trade agreement existed among such economically disparate countries. It was definitely a great experiment, and a lot has been learned from the results. There is no denying that there have been significant advances in a globally sustainable market that was enabled by NAFTA.
Alicia's Friday post discussed elements of our current trade policy that have contributed to the growth of a consumer driven movement to help refocus trade on its inherent human issues. Judging by some of the comments made on her post it is apparent that there is some confusion about what the Fair Trade movement really is.
The confusion is perfectly understandable as the Fair Trade movement is not
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