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Financial In Market Cancun, Mexico: At the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, the environmental group Sierra Club is voicing the concern of its more than 700,000 members that the interests of corporations are being put above the interests of working families and environmental protections.

The realization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) national corporations and faceless global market forces. As a result, communities across North America are at a higher risk to dirtier air, unsafe drinking water, borne illnesses. Rather than learn from this historic mistake, the Bush administration is pursuing new trade agreements based on the flawed NAFTA model.

Oriental Trading "The Bush Administration is putting the health and safety of our communities at risk by negotiating new international trade rules that make it much harder to protect our clean air, clean water, and public land," said Daniel Seligman, Sierra Club's Senior Trade Fellow. "There's a better way. We can make trade safe, clean and fair if our negotiators phold environmental safeguards and agree to cut the subsidies for global agribusiness."

New rules on "trade in services" could force governments to weaken environmental standards for risky industries, such as trucking, logging, mining, water supply, real estate development, factory farming, and more. To comply with NAFTA's rules on trade in services, the Bush administration recently waived US clean air standards in order to allow trucks based in Mexico to haul freight on US highways. This could increase air pollution in border states, as the aging Mexican truck fleet pollutes more than similar US trucks, and do not use the cleaner fuels required in the United States.

Financial Forex Forex Software Daniel Seligman is Sierra Club's representative at the WTO meeting in Cancun. He can be reached by calling 1-202-365-1219 or contacting David Willett at 1-202-675-6698.

The Bush administration and the utility industry say the old rules were too costly and ineffective. The old rules "were based on a serious misinterpretation" of federal law, said Dan Riedinger, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, the industry's main trade group. The new rules, Mr. Riedinger said, "are consistent with the companies' obligations to maintain reliability and safety, " and will "keep emissions trending downward."

Trading New "investor" and "services" rules under negotiation under the WTO threaten the ability of local, state and federal governments to protect the environment. Under Bush administration proposals, these services agreements could slash environmental safeguards for such risky industries as mining, logging, and factory farming. Under proposed new investor rules, the home countries of foreign companies in the United States would gain new powers to sue taxpayers for cash damages if environmental laws or other safeguards affect their profits.

This means communities will have even less resources for fire protection than promised them when the President signed the bill last year. We opposed "Healthy Forests, " but it is now the law. The Bush administration and timber industry got the bill they wanted, and it fails to protect communities from wildfire. The administration's funding proposals show that the Bush administration is not prepared to back up its community protection rhetoric with resources and action.

Trading Financial System Community Environmental Protections at Risk

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Day Trading Under the services rules on "market access," US trading partners could challenge the right of a local government to restrict the size or location of a new residential or commercial development. States could be penalized for limiting the number of fishing licenses granted in coastal waters, the amount of waste dumped into a landfill, the amount of timber that can be logged from public lands, or the amount of water extracted from an aquifer. Even limits on energy production in wilderness areas could be challenged as illegal restrictions on "market access."

Forex Financial Trading The Clean Water at Risk

Fortune Make Option Trading New investor rules on "expropriation" could prevent governments from setting standards that protect the public if doing so harms a foreign company's profits. For instance, the Methanex Corporation of Canada used NAFTA's investor provisions to sue U.S. taxpayers for $1 billion after California phased out a hazardous gasoline additive, which the company helps to manufacture. Should Methanex prevail, the federal government would have to force California to reverse its ban or pay damages. Similar lawsuits are expected to grow if investor provisions are included in the WTO.

Science Of Financial Market Under the services rules on "domestic regulation," our laws cannot be "more burdensome than necessary" to a foreign service supplier. This sweeping provision could unravel a wide range of protective laws and programs. For example, foreign water companies such as France's Vivendi/Veolia are already moving into U.S. markets to operate water systems. If local authorities then decide to improve water quality, cutting into profits, the foreign company could than ask its home government to challenge the new standards before the WTO.

Future Trading Clean Air at Risk

Financial Sales Services The service rules would enforce a broad version of "non-discrimination" that could threaten a wide range of environmental safeguards. For example, California recently passed a law that requires automakers to reduce global warming pollution from cars. Germany could challenge the law as discriminatory on behalf of Daimler-Chrysler arguing it would suffer greater impact because it would have to spend more than other automakers to meet the new standards.

Commodity Trading Instead of services and investor rules now under negotiations, the public needs trade rules that protect the environment, uphold the authority of federal, state and local governments, and strengthen communities while promoting commerce around the world. New rules shouldn't give greater rights to foreign investors than US. Citizens have under U.S. law. Additionally, cuts in production subsidies for global agribusiness would reduce the crop surpluses that harm family farmers the world over and allow government to redirect funds toward sustainable agriculture, rural development, and conservation.

Financial Services Trading More information can be found at www.sierraclub.org/trade

Online Forex Trading Sierra Club - 9/9/2003

Topic: Trade

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