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starheart.net/pave.html
mirror - starheart.8m.com/pave.html
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Updated 10 Jan 00 * Copyright 1999 by Andrew Homer.
Webmeister -StarHeart Web Designs
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"Pave paradise and put-up a parking lot." - from a song by Joni Mitchell
Help Protect Environmental Laws from the International Trade Chopping Block Please call your Member of Congress and urge him/her to vote for the Kucinich/
Ros-Lehtinen Amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations bill.
States and localities must either eliminate the laws or pay corporations for
the right to protect the environment. In the MTBE case, the Methanex corporation of Canada is suing the state for
$1 billion in damages.
Reps Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) want to protect state and local laws from corporations and undemocratic trade bodies. Their amendment would prevent the Federal government from using taxpayer dollars to force states and localities to comply with international trade agreements. It would also stop the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to stop local and state legislators from passing laws which could be challengeable under international trade rules (such as when the State Dept. went to Maryland to stop the consideration of a human rights law in support of the people of Nigeria).
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Sixteen leading national environmental organized joined together in opposition to the Clinton Administration's support of a forest products initiative at the World Trade Organization (WTO). In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky released July 19, 1999, groups as diverse as the Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society, World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club and American Lands, joined together in opposition to this misguided agreement.
. . . In the letter, the groups state that the forest
Members of Congress will be voting this week on the "NAFTA for Africa" bill, H.R. 434, to expand African trade. This bill represents a failed model of international trade which provides multinational corporations with greater control over African natural resources and economics while requiring nothing of these corporations with respect to workers and protection of the environment.
The NAFTA for Africa bill, H.R. 434, would encourage the continuation of logging practices that have led to the near deforestation of Africa's frontier forests. In West Africa, nearly 90 percent of the original moist forest is gone, and what remains is heavily fragmented and degraded. In Central Africa, over 90 percent of all logging occurs in primary forest, one of the highest ratios of any region in the world.
In Zaire, which contains more than half Central Africa's remaining forests, many tropical forests remain intact, in part because of the nation's poor transportation system. The NAFTA for Africa bill would mean open season on these endangered forests.
There is a better alternative. Representatives can vote against the NAFTA for Africa bill and cosponsor Rep. Jesse Jackson's (D-IL) HOPE for Africa bill, HR 722, which would ensure that U.S. corporations doing business in Africa conduct themselves in an environmentally responsible manner and with accountability to local citizens.
Unique among trade legislation, the HOPE for Africa act includes strong environmental
safeguards to ensure that corporations operating in Africa and accessing the bill's benefits act responsibly with
respect to the local environment. Specifically, the bill (1) denies U.S. market access to products that are produced
in a manner inconsistent with the environmental standards that apply to similar operations in developed countries;
(2) empowers U.S. citizens to enforce provisions of the Act in U.S. courts; and (3) provides foreign assistance
to Africa while requiring that the assistance be spent in consultation with the African people and be directed
toward environmental protection and other goals.
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