From: nicanet@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.mexican
Subject: NAFTA Signed; Protests Continue
Date: 21 Dec 92 22:19:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:DHB6VB2w165w@nyxfer.uucp:1511786455:000:2981
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nicanet    Dec 21 14:19:00 1992


Subject: NAFTA Signed; Protests Continue
From: nyxfer!nicanet (NicaNet NY)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

from...
         Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York
       339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

            Weekly News Update #151, December 20, 1992


NAFTA IS SIGNED; ASIA AND EASTERN EUROPE TO JOIN?

The leaders of Canada, Mexico and the US formally signed the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in simultaneous
ceremonies on Dec. 17, while activists protested the treaty in
Washington and New York. About a dozen activists from the
environmental organization Greenpeace demononstrated outside
Organization of American States (OAS) headquarters in Washington,
calling NAFTA George Bush's Christmas present for the big
corporations. At the same time a coalition of labor,
environmental and consumer groups announced a campaign to
pressure incoming president Bill Clinton to renegotiate the pact.
[El Diario-La Prensa 12/18/92 from AFP] Trade union and Puerto
Rican groups demonstrated in New York City, while Stanley Hill,
head of AFSCME District Council 37, the city's largest union,
told participants that it was "a farce to say that the treaty is
a cure for the recession." [ED-LP 12/18/92] (For information on
opposition to NAFTA, call Citizens Free Trade Watch Campaign at
202-546-4996.)
 
In Mexico, opposition Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) leader
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas points out that NAFTA doen't address the
large-scale Mexican immigration to the US, which he says
consitutes "the most important interchange between Mexico and the
US" from an economic point of view. The PRD would support a
continentwide agreement with "compensatory investments" for the
less developed countries, as was done for Spain, Portugal and
Greece when they were admitted into the European Community (EC).
[La Jornada (Mexico) 12/13/92] In the US, Clinton has expressed
support for NAFTA, but with reservations. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
says that if reelected Bush would have had problems getting the
treaty through Congress: "I think the president-elect will have a
much easier chance, a much better chance." Bush remains
enthusiastic. In a speech in Detroit on Dec. 17 he suggested that
eventually Eastern European and Asian countries might be included
in the North American trade zone. [NYT 12/18/92]
 
                               -30-

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