In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

BUILDING HEMESPHERE’S FREE TRADE ZONE OF AMERICAS

The USA is championing the cause of building a Free Trade Zone covering the two Americas – North and South. It was sponsored in 1994 by President Clinton standing in Miami, FL and flanked by 33 countries of these two vast Continents. Cuba is not a party of this game of “controlling” the market economy of the area that would consist of 850 million people with purchasing power of about 11 trillion dollars, representing a vast consumer market on its own merit. It was to be perfected by 2005 but the end-result of the conference was very disappointing for President Bush of the USA. He went to attend the two days Summit at Mar del Plata, Argentina with high hopes and expectations to boost his position at home and get the best economic benefits for his country. The Conference ended on Saturday, November 5, 2005 with no progress at all. The hemisphere stands divided on the issue, doubtful of attaining the well proclaimed gains for the member countries and fearful of US domination over the poor and underdeveloped countries of the region.

For Capitalism the continuous growth in market economy, in fact, is its essence and the process of developing its new “faces” through ages... The growth of capitalism depends on finding new markets, the life-blood of consumer economy. The global traditional market was becoming somehow “tight” due to sharp competition in trade and fast rising economies of developing countries in the aftermath of reaching a kind of saturation point with the growth of the economy of ECM, replacement of machine in place of human labor, resulting in unemployment in almost all the industrialized countries, the emergence of the cyber-space age of Information technology that has wonderfully reduced the cost of production and enormously augmented the volume of capitalist’s profit. The champions of the Cyber-space era, the USA, Europe and Japan have become frantic in their search for capturing new markets along with getting access to cheap labor resources of developing and underdeveloped countries to produce their goods and services at competitively low cost, enabling them to stay in the market which is fast getting more and more competitive. The growing economies of China, India and Brazil are also becoming “headache” for them.

In this age of survival of the fittest, the ingenuity of the capitalist mind envisioned to entrap the world market through a well designed concept of Global economy in the name of Free Trade. It means abolishing all the trade barriers, doing away with tariff system altogether in each and every country and eliminating import and export duties from all the countries of the world. Thus, providing immense opportunities to the efficient manufacturers of the developed countries to dump their finished products in underdeveloped countries and reap the harvest of ”bumper” profits as they used to muster during their days of old Imperialism and the era of colonization of Asia, Africa and Latin America at will.. In fact, they are trying in twenty first century to keep the old wine of exploitation into the new bottle of Global economy and World Free Trade. The developed countries at the same time are enticing the developing countries like India, China and Brazil by transferring “some” technology of the modern age along with “some” job opportunities just to grab the cheap labor, both raw and skilled, of these countries for producing their “model” goods and services and compete their rivals in trade and manufacturing fields and maximize their profit level both at home and abroad.

It would be the tragedy of Himalayan altitude if their program of capturing Global Market goes through unfettered. The poor countries that are being “forced” to accept the mockery of Global economy will be robbed twice as in the past: selling their form products and raw material at extremely low prices while getting the finished products and services at abnormally high cost. Even they will not be able to export their form products to developed countries as they will not be able to compete with the subsidized low cost agriculture products of industrialized countries. Both the USA and the European countries are extremely reluctant to reduce the subsidies to their formers. This is the hardest stumbling block in the formation of Free trade Zone and accepting the concept of Globalization. The poor countries will get practically nothing against what they will “surrender” to giant industrialized countries of Europe and America. “Suspicion” is the dominating factor at every step. Without trust in each other, the concept of Globalization may remain a distant dream.

Meanwhile, the USA is trying to formulate its own hemisphere Free Trade Zone of North and South America to create its monopoly in goods and services. The two day’s Summit of 33 nations of the two Americas assembled at Mar del Plata, Argentina ended without attaining any workable consensus as suspicion of American intentions prevailed throughout. In the background the leadership role of President Bush was somehow not a trustworthy one. His “false” War on Terrorism and forceful occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan have made his position as “unacceptable” to many in the Summit. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela expressed no trust in President Bush. Chavez was openly alleging that Bush wanted to kill him. Chavez addressed a huge protest anti-Free Trade Area public rally outside the meeting place. All were chanting anti Bush and anti-FT slogans. Thus, the Summit ended in a fiasco. It achieved nothing except creating some more bitterness against the USA and its President. Even President Bush did not attend the lunch for the delegates and it was cancelled at the end. President Bush departed from Argentina empty handed and head down. In stead of boosting his falling position at home, it may push him down further along with the image of the USA in its own hemisphere.

The people of the United States of America must examine the performance of President Bush afresh, evaluate his so-called policy of “War on Terrorism” which is being sustained only on concocted stories, review his output at home and failure to raise the banner of the USA abroad under the growing shadow of mistrust and distrust, hate and despise for American policies and political intentions and come to conclusion as why the fair name of America is being tarnished every where around the globe. It clearly indicates that the affairs of the USA are not in “safe” and “proper” hands. There is something wrong that must be corrected forthwith. America is fast losing its natural charm that attracted people around the world for centuries together to land at its coast and kiss it.

Shamim Siddiqi November 8, 2005