Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
however, hundreds of corporate representatives are advising the US negotiators and have
advance access to the negotiating texts. While citizens are left in the dark, corporations are
helping to write the rules for the FTAA.
The underlying political purpose of the committee is made clear in the FTAA draft:
The aim of the Committee of Government Representatives (CRG) on the Participation of Civil
Society is to build broad public understanding of and support for hemispheric trade liberaliza-
tion by serving as a channel of communication between civil society at the regional level and the
FTAA negotiations. (Cited in Blum, 2000, p. 6)
It is also open only to those groups that express their views in a 'constructive manner', a
device clearly intended to screen out critics. The chief negotiator of NAFTA for Mexico
under the administration of Ernesto Zedillo, Herminio Blanco Mendoza stressed the
limited role of the committee in the following terms: 'This is no study group, no negoti-
ating group, it's a committee that receives proposals and presents them to ministers' (cited
in Blum, 2000, p. 7). The short summaries produced by the committee of inputs from civil
society for the Trade Negotiations Committee led environmentalists to react by saying:
'We just don't think it's a good use of our time . . . We don't want our view mediated by
a bunch of bureaucrats' (ibid.). For all its limitations, the committee remains the only
remaining o
cial avenue for consideration of the environmental implications of the
FTAA, given that the negotiating groups have failed to identify speci
c opportunities for
raising environmental concerns directly. Even the existing body has faced opposition from
a number of Latin American countries.
Since its creation, the CRG has met numerous times and extends open invitations to
civil society groups to present contributions regarding the FTAA process, the
fi
rst of
which was issued on 1 November 1998 and the most recent on 21 November 2003. The
fi
fi
rst two calls received 70 contributions, the third received 56 and the fourth 43, many of
which came from US-based industry associations. Declining interest perhaps re
fl
ects both
greater enthusiasm in response to the
rst such innovation of its sort, and
subsequent frustration with the 'drop-box' model of participation (CIECA, 2003, p. 337).
No formal process links the civil society dialogue and any of the FTAA's nine negotiating
groups. Deere and Esty (2002, p. 7) suggest that 'In fact, no procedures even exist to guide
the consideration of submissions from civil society, let alone analysis of them.' They claim
that there has been no substantive analysis of the submissions received from various
groups and organizations since the committee was established, only the brief summaries
mentioned above. On this basis, they argue,
fi
rst call, the
fi
Although the Civil Society Committee nominally reports directly to the FTAA trade ministers
[through the Trade Negotiations Committee], it does so in terms that are far too general to be
of any real use. Such lip service to critical issues and to the process of public participation
promises to become a serious obstacle when it comes to ratify the FTAA'.
Alongside this, there have been government-led initiatives carried forward by individ-
ual administrations within the FTAA process to improve the participation of civil society
in decision-making on environmental issues. Examples include the initiative between the
Bolivia government and the World Resources Institute, or the roles created by the gov-
ernments of the USA and Canada for processes led by groups such as Fundación Futuro
