For example, detailed studies by Public Citizen and other watchdog groups have shown that in the seven years of NAFTA, transnational corporations from the three signing countries (Canada, USA, Mexico) have benefited while the middle classes and working classes of these countries have suffered. More jobs have been lost due to NAFTA than have been created.

Several decades of the GATT have lowered corporate taxes by the trillions of dollars, thus helping to bankrupt governments around the world and make them dependent on borrowing from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the private banks. This indebtedness then gives immense policy influence to the bankers, who are mainly interested in the money cycle not the life cycle.

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6/24/01	Free trade and sweatshops: Is global trade doing more harm than good? -- Perhaps the fundamental question about globalization is whether it helps or hurts workers, particularly in developing countries. Insight asked Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange and David Henderson of the Hoover Institution to engage in an e-mail debate. (San Francisco Chronicle)
6/21/01	Body bags stockpiled for Genoa summit -- Italian authorities have ordered 200 body bags as they step up preparations for a violent confrontation at next month's G8 summit in Genoa, say Italian media reports. (BBC News)
12/20/00	Junked Workers Give Nafta Its Final Test -- Plant managers called them the "jonkeados" -- the junked ones. They were workers who got so sick, so chronically disabled, that they were given special jobs. But they weren't put on "light duty," to tide them over until they could go back to the line. Instead, these workers were put under even greater pressure, harassed and assigned tasks so unpleasant "that we knew they were just waiting for us to quit and leave," according to Joaquin Gonzalez.
12/15/00	Labor/Trade-Latam: Unions Want FTAA Put to Popular Vote -- Giving in to the demands of the United States in the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would be tantamount to suicide, warned central trade unions from the Southern Cone countries.
12/13/00	Canada Seeks Review of NAFTA's Chapter 11 -- Canada is seeking a review of the controversial Chapter 11 of the North American free-trade agreement, which allows companies to sue member countries to protect their investments.
11/14/00	NAFTA ruling goes against Ottawa -- Ottawa could be forced to pay up to $50-million (U.S.) in compensation to an Ohio-based company after a NAFTA tribunal ruled that it had been damaged by a ban on exports from Canada of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
11/3/00	Trade Issues in 'Good Shape' Barshefsky: Next President Faces Major Challenges -- The next U.S. president should push for sweeping free-trade pacts with Latin America and Europe but recognize they won't get through Congress unless they protect worker rights and natural resources, the top U.S. trade official says.
6/19/00	States Lose Trade Discretion Case -- The Supreme Court, ruling that states cannot infringe on the foreign policymaking prerogatives of the U.S. government, made it harder for states to refuse to buy from companies that do business in nations known for human-rights abuses.
5/22/00	The China Deal: If You Can't Sell It, Buy It -- Here they go again. The Clinton administration is pulling out all the stops to badger, cajole, and bribe Congress into expanding our commercial ties with China. Those who remember the fight over NAFTA will notice remarkable similarities.
4/13/00	10,000 union members protest China trade bill at Capitol -- An estimated 10,000 union members clogged the corridors of Congress on Wednesday in a massive lobbying effort against a landmark trade agreement with China that they fear would cost U.S. workers hundreds of thousands of jobs.
3/7/00	Lawyers for U.S. Seek End to Myanmar Boycott -- Clinton administration lawyers chose free trade over human rights Tuesday, saying cities and states may not boycott companies that do business with repressive regimes abroad.
1/21/00	Growing Troubles in Mexico -- Globalization has soured a legacy of corn farming, practiced by nearly 25% of populace. Some see the problem as a trade-off for nation's rise in world commerce.
10/6/99	Stop NAFTA Southern Expansion--FTAA -- From November 1-4, 1999 trade representatives from throughout the western hemisphere will convene in Toronto, Canada. Their goal is to remove all social and environmental impediments to trade in the Americas. Their plan promises to benefit multinational corporations, while devastating national economies, sending people into deeper poverty, and destroying the natural environment. How do they intend to do this? Through the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
9/24/99	Military to enforce NAFTA? -- A U.S. Army War College report suggests the need for a joint military command to address "regional economic and security concerns" in North America and to "co-ordinate military action on terrorism, insurgency, security threats and drug trafficking." The report states: "If we fail to change our current strategy, the country could become less stable, thus jeopardizing the viability of NAFTA and the Free Trade Area of the Americas."
8/6/99	Association of Concerned Africa Scholars Briefing Paper -- The House of Representatives in mid-July approved the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (H.R. 2489), legislation that if it became law would link new trade preferences for Africa to structural adjustment reforms and IMF style conditionalities. The ACAS Executive Committee believes the legislation approved by the House is worse than no bill at all and we recommend members urge their Senators to vote against the bill when it comes for a vote in that body.
7/99	NAFTA Challenge to California -- A Canadian company wants nearly $1 billion in compensation for Gov. Davis' order phasing out the controversial gasoline additive MTBE, a demand that raises critical questions about whether California's attempts to protect its environment will be dragged into the swamp of international trade law.
6/18/99	Canadian Firm Sues California Over MTBE -- Challenging one of California's newest environmental protections, a Canadian corporation has filed suit to overturn the state's ban on the gasoline additive MTBE, calling it a violation of free-trade rules.
3/3/99	Comparison of two competing trade bills for Africa -- A side-by-side comparison of HOPE for Africa (H.R. 772) and African Growth and Opportunity Act (H.R. 434), courtesy of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.