TRADE NEWS BULLETIN Volume 2 Number 166 Monday, September 20, 1993 Headlines: IACOCCA WILL JOIN CAMPAIGN FOR NAFTA MOYNIHAN SKEPTICAL ON NAFTA, CALLS MEXICO AUTHORITARIAN SALINAS WILL PROMOTE NAFTA TO CORPORATE LEADERS INDIAN FARMERS SAY GOVERNMENT WILL REJECT GATT EC MINISTERS MEET TODAY AS MAJOR LEVELS THREATS ________________________________________________________ NAFTA News Summary ________________________________________________________ IACOCCA WILL JOIN CAMPAIGN FOR NAFTA NEWSWEEK reports that Lee Iacocca, the former head of Chrysler, will probably join President Clinton's campaign for the North American Free Trade Agreement. The magazine, which hit the newsstands today, says Clinton will ask Iacocca this week to begin countering Ross Perot's attacks on the trade pact. Aides say Clinton wants to enlist Iacocca to film television advertisements and possibly even debate Perot on NAFTA. Administration officials say Perot's statements on NAFTA are largely inaccurate. "Mr. Perot has given hyperbole a bad name," Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said in a television interview. "He has been misleading and in fact not factual in much of what he has said." Meanwhile, in a weekend rally on the steps of Michigan's capitol in Lansing, Perot encouraged the approximately 3,500 people in attendance to write letters, make phone calls and tell their representatives in Congress that NAFTA will cause the loss of thousands of high-paying U.S. jobs. Perot was joined by two Democrats, Senator Donald Riegle (Michigan) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), and a Republican, Rep. Helen Delich Bentley (Maryland), in calling on Congress to reject NAFTA. Riegle said that any member of Congress who votes for NAFTA should be defeated for reelection. Sources: "Clinton to Recruit Iacocca as NAFTA Spokesman," REUTER, September 19, 1993; Edward Walsh, "In Anti-NAFTA Push, Perot Builds Support Among Clinton Backers," WASHINGTON POST, September 19, 1993; Jerry Dubrowski, "Perot Urges Americans to Fight Against NAFTA," REUTER, September 19, 1993; "U.S. Trade Chief Says Perot Demagogic," REUTER, September 19, 1993. ________________________________________________________ MOYNIHAN SKEPTICAL ON NAFTA, CALLS MEXICO AUTHORITARIAN Senator Daniel Moynihan (D-New York), who heads the Senate Finance Committee, warned NAFTA supporters that they should not assume he will vote for the controversial trade pact. Moynihan told interviewers on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that he sympathizes with many of the concerns of organized labor. Moynihan also said that he considers Mexico the most authoritarian government in the Western hemisphere after Cuba. He has argued the United States should not form a trade agreement with a country that doesn't hold fair multiparty elections. Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari is taking steps to combat the image of corrupt politics in his country. Mexico's House of Deputies, controlled by Salinas' Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), agreed Saturday to expand from one day to three days the post-election period for filing formal allegations of election fraud. "We have concluded an important part of the legal changes needed to bring the electoral process to bear on the new political realities of the country," Salinas said. Douglas Payne of the U.S.-based human rights group Freedom House said the reforms fail to remove ruling-party control of the Federal Election Institute. "The president can appoint 'independent citizen observers' to the election councils, but he still decides who those independent citizens are," said Payne. Sources: "Moynihan Warns Not to Take His NAFTA Vote for Granted," UPI, September 19, 1993; Bill Cormier, "Mexico-Politics," AP, September 19, 1993. ________________________________________________________ SALINAS WILL PROMOTE NAFTA TO CORPORATE LEADERS In San Francisco, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari will urge international corporate executives to increase lobbying efforts for NAFTA in the face of growing public opposition. Opponents of NAFTA will hold a sidewalk demonstration outside the hotel where the invitation-only International Industrial Conference is taking place. "We're intending to debate NAFTA in front of the hotel if they won't invite us inside," said Craig Merrilees, director of the California Fair Trade Campaign. Source: Carl T. Hall, "Conference to Focus on Free Trade," SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, September 18, 1993. ________________________________________________________ GATT News Summary ________________________________________________________ INDIAN FARMERS SAY GOVERNMENT WILL REJECT GATT Over 30,000 Indian farmers ended a three-day protest in Delhi on Sunday, claiming the government had agreed to reject GATT proposals. The farmers had been camping in front of Delhi's 17th century Red Fort since Friday in a protest organized by the Indian Farmers Union (BKU). The farmers object to GATT's provisions concerning the patenting of seeds and plant breeding, which they say could prohibit them from replanting their own seeds and force them to pay more for new ones. A senior official denied the government had made any promises on GATT. "There is no specific assurance of any kind. They (the BKU) just want to tell their people something to go home." Source: "Indian Farmers End Three-Day Sit-In Against GATT," REUTER, September 19, 1993. ________________________________________________________ INDIAN FARMERS SAY GOVERNMENT WILL REJECT GATT On the eve of a meeting of European Community foreign, farm and trade ministers, British Prime Minister John Major threatened to reject French EC initiatives unless France withdraws threats to block the Blair House agreement on farm trade. British officials are said to be composing a list of EC issues to block if France continues to oppose Blair House. The top priority is likely to be French ambitions to house the proposed European Monetary Institute in France. British officials said Major was "extremely concerned" about the possibility the Uruguay Round of talks would collapse if France succeeds in reopening the agriculture agreement. French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur said Sunday night that France will formally request a renegotiation of the accord. "We will not accept the so-called Blair House accord as it stands," Balladur said. He repeated his vow to use France's veto if anyone tried to "impose on France an accord contrary to its interests." Sources: Kevin Brown, Quentin Peel, John Ridding, "UK Threatens to Block French Initiatives on EC," FINANCIAL TIMES, September 20, 1993; Paul Ames, "GATT-Farm Fight," AP, September 19, 1993; David Gardner, "Hopes Rising That Deal Can Be Saved," FINANCIAL TIMES, September 20, 1993. ________________________________________________________ Editor: Kai Mander The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) 1313 Fifth Street SE, Suite #303 Minneapolis, MN 55414-1546 USA Telephone:(612)379-5980 Fax:(612)379-5982 E-Mail:kmander@igc.apc.org ________________________________________________________