A New Quest Venture

Beginning last June, Quest for Peace staff assumed the responsibility for coordination of the Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART). ART is a national network of labor, family-farm, religious, women, environmental, development and research organizations that promotes equitable and sustainable trade and development. The network started as a response to NAFTA and subsequently became focused on the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), the hemispheric agreement still being promoted by the United States.

Coordination responsibilities include; tracking news on Regional Trade negotiations, coordinating visiting delegations, promoting popular education in the United States, translating documents on trade, debt and milita-rization and representating to the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA).

The HSA is a network of national networks throughout North and South America which is most known for the "Alternatives for the Americas" document, created in a consensus process that offers concrete proposals for alternative trade models. In our coordinating role, we would work on a variety of issues related to these themes, including monitoring the CAFTA impact, and the Andean FTA, the NAFTA-plus and FTAA agendas.

One upcoming event is a three country (Mexico, Canada and the United States) meeting of Legislators and Civil Society representatives who share concerns about the deepening and broadening of NAFTA which is being undertaken by the 3 Presidents. Following a May 2005 meeting of the Presidents, a document called "The Alliance for Security and Prosperity" appeared on government web sites. It outlines timelines for having new themes integrated into the current agreement. At least some in the respective Congresses are concerned that it exceeds the legal authority of the executive branches, and are meeting to discuss ways to confront this problem collectively.

Coordinating ART is a new opportunity for the Quest to expand the scope of our work. We will keep you posted through email alerts, and newsletters about ongoing developments in this new and challenging work.