"Latin Bishops Launch Broadside against Free Trade Area"

Raul Pierri, Inter Press Service (IPS)

MONTEVIDEO, Sep 4 (IPS) -- The Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA) looks less like a true regional integration project than
a ''neo-colonialist'' plan that will make poor communities even
poorer and will not respect national sovereignty, said the Catholic
bishops of the members of South America's largest trade bloc.
''What we condemn is that the only aim of the project is to increase
trade flows, regardless of whether or not it devastates everything
and everyone in its path,'' the secretary-general of the bishops'
conference of Uruguay, Bishop Pablo Galimberti of the southern
Uruguayan city of San Jos, told IPS on Thursday.The Catholic bishops of the countries of South America's Mercosur
trade bloc--Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay--and the bloc's
associate members Bolivia and Chile met this week in Montevideo, the
Uruguayan capital, to discuss the challenges of integration in Latin
America and the ''ethical and moral'' aspects of the creation of the
FTAA.

The initiative promoted by the United States will create a free
trade zone made up of 34 countries--all of the nations in the
Americas with the exception of Cuba--with a total population of 800
million people and a combined Gross National Product (GNP) of over
$11 billion by 2005.

The main objections to the FTAA raised by the bishops were that it
will benefit the richest countries--like the United States and
Canada--at the expense of the less competitive members, and that it
will consolidate the hold of ''unfettered neo-liberalism'' on the
entire region.

''Christian ethics and the Christian vision encompass everything,
not just the moral aspects,'' said Galimberti. ''They encompass the
spiritual as well as the economic. We do not separate out religious
and social aspects.''

In a statement, the bishops said the creation of the FTAA would
have ''grave consequences'' due to ''the excessive disproportion of
the competitive capacities of the countries, some of which have very
strong, developed economies while others are weak."

''This initiative will foment the concentration of economic power in
a few hands, favouring the formation of monopolies and oligopolies,
which will end up imposing their hegemony over governments,
especially in the weakest countries in the Americas.

''Rather than integration, this could involve neo-coloni alism, with
a negative impact on local communities...The chief aim of an
initiative like the FTAA should be to promote the common good and
solidarity between nations, and not merely to search for the
greatest advantage for just a few,'' they said.

The bishops also expressed concern over the future of indigenous and
rural communities, ''which in this system would run the risk of
being displaced,'' from land rich in natural resources, for example.

In addition, they said the strategic natural resources of poor
nations ''should not be susceptible to appropriation by private
interests.

''A true process of integration in the Americas should be based on a
continent-wide policy that takes into account human rights and the
principles of sovereignty, justice, solidarity and respect for the
cultural identities of nations,'' said the statement.

The secretary-general of Brazil's bishops' conference, Bish op Odilo
Scherer of Sao Paulo, told IPS that the Brazilian (news - web sites)
Catholic Church is working with non-governmental organizations on a
campaign aimed at raising awareness about the FTAA, which will
include another ''people's referendum'' in which Brazilians will be
asked what they think about the future free trade area.

''We will hold an unofficial popular referendum this month to allow
Brazilians to express their opinions about the FTAA. Our big concern
is human beings, who should always take top priority,'' he said.

In a similar ''referendum'' held in September 2002, 10 million
Brazilians said they were opposed to the free trade area, according
to the organizers.

The president of Argentina's bishops' conference, Eduardo Mirs,
stressed the negative impact that the prescriptions of the
multilateral lending institutions have had on his crisis-stricken
nation.

''Our countries need help, without a doubt, but they don't need an
invasion of our sovereignty, which also implies a loss of our
identity. By meddling in our educational programmes, for example,
they are undermining the free determination of nations,'' Mirs, the
archbishop of the eastern Argentine city of Rosario, told IPS.

The bishops meeting in Montevideo did not agree on any concrete
common strategy, nor did they decide to discuss their point of view
with their respective governments.

''We are making closer contact with political leaders, but we are
not a political party. This statement simply has the objective of
helping to form the faith of Christians, with a social dimension,''
said Galimberti.

The declaration signed Thursday by the bishops of the Mercosur
nations and their associates Bolivia and Chile concurs with the
pastoral letter Ecclesia in America that Pope John Paul II made public in Mexico in 1999.

Ecclesia in America stated that ''more and more, in many countries
of the Americas, a system known as 'neo-liberalism' prevails; based
on a purely economic conception of man, this system considers profit
and the law of the market as its only parameters, to the detriment
of the dignity of and the respect due to individuals and peoples.

''At times this system has become the ideological justification for
certain attitudes and behaviour in the social and political spheres
leading to the neglect of the weaker members of society. Indeed, the
poor are becoming ever more numerous, victims of specific policies
and structures which are often unjust.''

The views of the Roman Catholic Church are of great significance in
the Americas, which is home to 528 million Catholic faithful, nearly
half of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, according to Vatican statistics.