ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

The Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART) is a diverse coalition of U.S. based organizations working together to oppose the current corporate led trade model (CAFTA and FTAA) which is aggressively promoted by the United States and to propose fair and just trade alternatives.  We work in partnership with the Hemispheric Social Alliance, an alliance of networks and social movements through out the hemisphere working together to envision and enact new trade policies based on principals of economic cooperation, mutuality, commitment to the poor and the environment.

One year ago Quest for Peace agreed to assume coordination of the ART network - and what a year it has been!  2006 saw a hemispheric shift to the left, which has been underway for some time, but was crystallized in the November 2005 meeting in Mar de Plata, of 34 Western Hemisphere Presidents. It became clear at this meeting that the U.S. goal of achieving the regional hegemony it had envisioned by establishing the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), would not be easily attained. 

This shift deepened with the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia in December 2005, and the Bolivian Governments release of the "People's Trade Agreement (PTA)" in April, 2006. The PTA reads like the Magnificat, flipping the trade debate by demanding that trade serve communities, the poor and the environment rather than corporations and unbridled profit.  The PTA marks the first time that a government has officially adopted the values and goals that ART and the HSA have articulated for the past 15 years. 

The re-election of Presidents Lula in Brazil and Chavez in Venezuela and the recent election of Rafael Correa in Ecuador offer the opportunity for continued consolidation of a new economic model. This model attempts to mitigate the impact of the neoliberal agenda, which has been imposed on the region from Washington for the last 20+ years, and has led to deepening poverty and an increase in the disparity between rich and poor throughout Latin America.

Bolivia is also taking the lead in promoting economic cooperation among countries in South America through the South American Community of Nations (SNC). At the recent meeting of Presidents in Cochabamba in December 2006, the SCN was redefined as a political space for forging strategies to reduce poverty and improve living conditions for the poor in Latin America whom the present system has failed. A Treaty similar to the way the EU is structured for the SCN to evolve into a formal relationship binds Bolivia's plan.  Four commissions have been established to make this new vision a reality, working on areas of common concern; energy, infrastructure, social issues and the content of the Treaty.  Bolivia hopes to head the commission on the Treaty and has the goal of a draft Treaty this calendar year!

Our coordinating role in ART has been pivotal; providing leadership to this expansive network, serving as a liaison between networks in Mexico, Central and South America and Canada, and sponsoring visits of key actors from the Global South to the United States to educate our citizens and Congress and to influence the direction of US policy.  ART continues to expand its scope of activity and membership, building capacity to contribute even more fully and strategically in the process of phenomenal change experienced in 2006 and which 2007 promises to surpass.

 We trust you will join with us in supporting this endeavor.  Details of these events we have described are available on the ART website (http://www.art-us.org).  As the Administration attempts to move forward their "free trade" agenda, we will ask that you contact your Legislators and write letters demanding a new model of trade relationships.  We know that the Administration is planning very soon to ask for renewal of Trade Promotion Authority (better known as Fast Track) shortly, as it expires at the end of June.  We think that this Administration has totally abused this authority, which Congress had granted, and that it should not be renewed until a different framework for trade relationships is in place.  Soon we will be calling on you to pressure your legislators to say ‘NO' to Fast Track.