Canada-U.S.-Mexico
Agreement
Ruling Elite in Canada, Mexico
and U.S. Push Continental Integration to Serve
Their Private Interests
- K.C. Adams -
  
U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law an
amended version of the 26-year-old North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) at a White House
ceremony on January 29. Four hundred members of
the ruling elite attended, against a backdrop of
U.S. manufacturing and oilpatch workers in
coveralls and hard hats, to watch as the U.S.
officially adopted the Canada-U.S.-Mexico
Agreement (CUSMA), as Mexico has already done. Not
one representative of Trump's bitter rivals from
the Democratic Party political faction of the
financial oligarchy was allowed into the ceremony.
In Trump's inimitable style of flaunting his
immense social wealth and class origin within the
financial oligarchy, as conferring on the rich the
right to rule over the working people, he told the
assembled crowd to loud laughter, "This [CUSMA] is
something we really put our heart into -- it's
probably the number one reason I decided to lead
this crazy life I'm leading right now, as opposed
to that beautiful, simple life of luxury that I
led before this happened."
 Trump initiated the
talks to replace NAFTA in 2017 with strong words
condemning the agreement as a "disaster" for the
U.S., yet the replacement does not make any
fundamental change. CUSMA strengthens the original
free trade root of the agreement, giving the
financial oligarchs greater supranational power to
manipulate the economies of the three countries to
favour their narrow private interests, exploit the
working class, rip out the natural resources
without restriction, control the $1.2 trillion in
annual U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade of goods that
workers produce, wage war with impunity in their
striving for global hegemony, and disregard the
consequences of their irresponsible actions.
The enlarged control of the rich oligarchs over
the three countries and their economies and their
integration into Fortress North America should
also be seen in connection with the secure trade
and communication corridors the oligarchs are
building across the continent, the extended power
of the U.S. border police into Canada and Mexico,
and all three peoples' entrapment within U.S.
Homeland Security, the ever-expanding war economy
and the violent striving of the U.S. financial
oligarchy for global hegemony.
CUSMA Enabling Legislation Tabled in Parliament
On the same day as Trump's signing ceremony,
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled a
bill in the Canadian Parliament to implement
CUSMA. The mass media of the financial oligarchy
went into overdrive to demand the Liberal-led
minority Parliament swiftly pass the bill and that
the opposition political parties not impede its
rapid approval.
 The business
organizations of the ruling elite also forwarded
their concern that nothing be done to delay
passage of CUSMA, putting the government and
opposition on notice not to mount any obstruction.
The Business Council of Canada, together with the
Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, the Canadian
Chamber of Commerce, and Canadian Manufacturers
& Exporters sent a message to Parliament
calling "on all Parliamentarians across party
lines to support swift efforts to ratify and
implement Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement
(CUSMA). After three years of uncertainty, it's
time to restore long-term predictability to North
American supply chains. [...] This is about
certainty and North America's ability to compete
with the world as an integrated market. It is time
for Canada to follow suit and ratify."
CUSMA and NAFTA both indicate the control of the
financial oligarchy over the lives of the peoples
of North America and negation of their right to a
say and control over those affairs that affect
their lives, of which the economy is central.
CUSMA makes local and national control of the
economy and social and natural environment that
much more remote and difficult. It represents the
power of the oligarchs to skirt and overrule any
regulations or restrictions that have been
introduced in the past or may be contemplated to
ameliorate the harsh effects and consequences of
their socially irresponsible aim for maximum
private profit and the disturbing trend of the
imperialist economy for the concentration of
social wealth in fewer and fewer hands as the rich
become richer and the poor poorer.
The peoples of the continent should loudly
denounce CUSMA and those political forces that
have pushed it down their throats. The working
people of North America do not presently hold
political power and are not sufficiently organized
to mount an effective opposition at this time. But
they should be clear that this direction for the
economy under the control and aim of the financial
oligarchy is not sustainable and can only lead to
recurring economic crises, war and increasing
damage to Mother Earth.
A new pro-social direction for the economy,
under the control and socially responsible aim of
the working people is not only possible but
necessary. But control of the economy and an aim
to serve the people and humanize the social and
natural environment require the efforts of working
people to organize themselves for empowerment
through democratic renewal and to use their own
voice to speak boldly and clearly in their own
interests and for a bright future for the youth
and society.
For a review of the main changes to NAFTA and
additions within CUSMA, read the TML Weekly
items below:
- "The
Noise Accompanying New Free Trade Agreement
Between U.S., Mexico and Canada," K.C. Adams,
October 6, 2018,
- "Aggressive
Trade Agenda of the U.S. Shakes Existing
Arrangements," K.C. Adams, June 15, 2019, and
- "Rounds
Six and Seven of NAFTA Negotiations," March 3,
2018.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 2 - February 1, 2020
Article Link:
:
Ruling Elite in Canada, Mexico
and U.S. Push Continental Integration to Serve
Their Private Interests - K.C. Adams
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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