By Ron Fournier. Associated Press.
Chicago Sun-Times. April 22, 2001.
QUEBEC--Western Hemisphere leaders ratified a plan Saturday barring
undemocratic nations from a massive free trade zone they hope will expand
prosperity across their 34 nations.
Outside the meeting, protesters clashed for a second day with
nightstick-wielding police who fired water cannons and rubber bullets.
With the fence around the summit site ringed by rock-throwing protesters
intent on tearing it down, presidents and prime ministers tried to address
demonstrators' wildly varying grievances with the Summit of the Americas.
"We knew there were some people who wanted to come and stop us,"
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said. "But look what happened. We
discussed democracy. We have a clause on democracy. We have discussed all the
elements that are needed to help the 800 million people living in the Americas
to prosper in the future."
Police said nearly 30,000 protesters crowded around the summit site, with
2,000 growing violent. In two days of unrest, at least 34 police officers were
injured, as were 45 demonstrators. There were at least 150 arrests, police said.
President Bush signaled his willingness to accept environmental and labor
standards in trade pacts, though advisers say he has not budged from his
opposition to Democratic demands that trade sanctions be used to enforce the
rules.
The so-called "democracy clause" would suspend the benefits of a
free trade zone from any country that ceases to be a democracy. Cuba was the
only nation in the Western Hemisphere excluded from the three-day summit because
it is not democratic.
The clause gave the leaders an opportunity to draw attention from protests
mounted a few blocks from their posh hotel.
The leaders gathered in a conference room with two large-screen televisions,
a gleaming horseshoe-shaped conference table and decorative, potted green ferns.
One by one, the leaders argued that expanded trade would buoy a variety of
social causes.
Bush said democracies would take root. President Miguel Angel Rodriguez of
Costa Rica said tiny economies like his would flourish. Colombian President
Andres Pastrana said his country would be better equipped to fight drug
trafficking.
"Colombia, like all countries which have seen the seeds of the drug
trade grow in its soil, needs the possibility of fair and open trade that will
allow it to steer its economy in the right direction and confront the new
imbalance caused by globalization," Pastrana said.
On the chaotic streets outside, protesters voiced an array of complaints,
ranging from their inability to attend the summit to AIDS treatment in poorer
countries and the perils of globalization.
"Trade equals tyranny!" was scribbled in red on the wall of one
downtown business.
Inside the summit meeting hall, leaders of nations large and small debated
how to reap the economic fruits of a barrier-free trade zone from Alaska to
Argentina without leaving the poor behind or weakening fledgling democracies.
Today, they plan to release a thick draft of their proposal, which calls for the
trade zone by 2005.
"Together let us go forward to build an age of prosperity in a
hemisphere of liberty," Bush said.
In a conciliatory note to the protesters, even the biggest proponents of
free trade acknowledged the downsides.
Mexican President Vicente Fox, whose nation joined Canada and the United
States in a 1994 free-trade pact, said the benefits of lower tariffs help
economies but can bypass the poor.
"There is a lot to celebrate, but there is also a lot to lament,"
Fox said. "We need a strong expansion of economic citizenship, to
democratize the markets. Only by doing that can we develop the energy of the
millions who have been excluded from economic development."
St. Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony said globalization has "brought
prosperity to some, but we cannot deny it has destroyed the lives of others. . .
. Until the hemisphere as a whole can enjoy the fruits of trade liberalization,
we cannot proclaim its glory; until all the peoples of the Americas are free
from hunger and fear of unemployment, we cannot celebrate the benefits of trade
liberalization."
Even Bush felt compelled to offer a new South and Central American program
to help modernize judicial institutions, protect basic human rights and root out
corruption.
"Free and open trade creates new jobs and new income. It lifts the
lives of our people," he said.
Copyright 2000, Digital Chicago Inc. | 