Scrap NAFTA

The setback for the Free Trade Area of the Americas at the recent Summit in Argentina was a tremendous victory. Why did thousands of working people travel to Mar del Plata to condemn the drive for the FTAA? Their reasons were many. Among the protesters were peasants and workers from Bolivia, where transnational capital has tried to seize control of water supplies.

A similar scenario is emerging here. A group of Texas farmers claims to "own" water in the tributaries which flow into the Rio Grande on the Mexico-U.S. border. They demand that Mexico must deliver this water to Texas, or else pay $500 million U.S. in penalties. The "legal" basis for this blackmail is the Chapter 11 provision of NAFTA, which allows individual investors to sue foreign governments for decisions that devalue their investments; in this case the argument is whether Mexico is upholding a 1944 water-sharing agreement.

This case may push the door open wider for the "continental water policy" favoured by U.S. agribusiness. While Mexico has just 4,600 cubic metres of renewable water available per person annually, Canada has 94,400 cubic metres per person. Canada and the U.S. have signed numerous water-sharing agreements, including the Boundary Waters Treaty. If the Texas claim succeeds, the next move will be a grab for Canada's water, starting with the Milk River which flows across the Alberta-Montana border, or perhaps the Great Lakes or some other convenient target.

Canada has the legal right to reopen the NAFTA agreement, or to abrogate the deal, which is proving to be the death knell of our economic sovereignty. The time to scrap NAFTA is now, before we lose control over our fresh water, one of the most valuable resources of the 21st century.