To: Homestead mailing list digest <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] Re: Somewhat Sobering
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:46:52 -0800
Here's B. C. now, bragging in his own words about his achievements as a
free traitor:
"We don’t need to build walls, we need to build bridges. We don’t need
protection, we need opportunity. But in a world of stiff competition we
also need more than free trade. We need fair trade with fair rules.
"That’s why I fought for NAFTA, which effectively opened Mexico’s and
Canada’s markets to American products, and for GATT, which is helping to
level the playing field for American companies abroad.
"In all, since 1992 we have negotiated more than 200 trade agreements-21
with Japan alone."
Source: Between Hope and History, by Bill Clinton, p. 34-35 Jan 1, 1996
Here's what happened in California as a result (from Sierra magazine):
"But through NAFTA, in a solidaristic act of corporate internationalism,
businesses and investors have granted each other what they couldn’t win
for themselves in their home countries. Chapter 11 allows companies that
experience even a partial loss of profits because of regulatory action
to seek reimbursement from the offending government. Consider the
complaint brought under Chapter 11 against the state of California by
Canada’s Methanex Corporation over its gasoline additive, MTBE. Because
MTBE is a known animal carcinogen, a possible human carcinogen, highly
soluble in water, and very costly and difficult to clean up, it is seen
as a major threat to groundwater. In California, more than 10,000
groundwater sites have already been contaminated by the additive. When
California sought to ban MTBE, Methanex filed a Chapter 11 complaint. If
the state wants to outlaw the substance, it may have to pay the company
nearly a billion dollars."