Daily Camera
August 22, 2001
By Greg Avery

The Boulder City Council judged a proposed free trade agreement as bad for local government and the World Bank to be a detriment to poor nations.

The council voted Tuesday to oppose the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement and to boycott World Bank bonds -- two gestures of opposition to the rising tide of globalization.

The trade pact and financial institution undermine local decisions about law and economics for the sake of multi-national corporations while hurting the poor, more than 30 local activists told the council Tuesday.

"These are all part of the same free trade agenda, opening up markets for corporations" said Carolyn Bninski, from the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. "Both topics are issues of sovereignty."

The Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement would establish a free trade zone covering all the democratic governments in North America, Central America and South America.

The proposed 34-country pact would allow companies to fight local governments' rules that may hurt their business.

Boulder City Attorney's Office research concluded the FTAA agreement could, depending on how it is negotiated, undermine the City Council's ability to pass environmental protections and other measures if international companies opposed the measure.

"The last thing we need is having opposition to our ability to pass environmental protections codified into international agreements," Mayor Will Toor said.

Boulder joined a handful of U.S. investment firms, unions, religious organizations and four cities -- San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and Takoma Park, Md. -- in boycotting World Bank bonds.

Activists decry the bank's "structural adjustment programs," saying they require debtor nations to adopt policies that hurt services and protections for the poor in order to help the countries pay off their debt.

John Donaldson, World Bank adviser for United States affairs, said the boycott movement has capitalized on ignorance.

He said it would take a global action by large institutional investment houses to have a financial impact on bank operations, and the boycott is largely meant to promote the anti-globalization movement.

"They really don't care what we do or how we do it. They just see us as a great place to hang their protest poster," Donaldson said.

World Bank bonds do not meet the city's qualifications for investment, so the city has no plans to invest in it, city officials say.

The World Bank still paid close attention to the boycott idea, Donaldson said, because -- unlike Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland -- Boulder represents a "mainstream" city opposing the bank.

Contact Greg Avery at (303) 473-1307 or averyg@thedailycamera.com.