Mini Teach-in on Atlantica held in Halifax, Nova Scotia The workshop entitled "Globalization Comes Home: Resistance and Alternatives to Atlantica" was presented by Janet Eaton and Asaf Rashid.
recorded by p. loiselle
Atlantica is the abbreviated name for the Atlantic Northeast Eco-nomic Region (AINER), a cross-border trade concept spanning the Maritime provinces, Newfoundland, southern Quebec, and the New England states ( i.e. Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and upstate New York). Its main proponent and originator is a right-wing think-tank group called the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), whose board of directors represents many big-business interests in the Atlantic region.
The proponents of Atlantica wish to develop a conduit to channel Asian goods to the United States through the Atlantic Provinces. Massive container ships called "post-Panamax" are too large to pass through the Panama Canal and Halifax is the closest North American port for ships from Asia via the Suez Canal. These containers would reach their destinations via "truck trains," resulting in increased greenhouse gas emissions, higher fatal-crash rates per mile, as well as the likely expansion of superhighways through communities, wilderness, and farmland.
Atlantica is also about increasing exports of unprocessed resources, like energy and water, from Canada to the United States. The intent is to export oil and gas from the Atlantic offshore as quickly as possible on terms that favour industry and leave decisions regarding exports to deregulated markets.
The Atlantica tag line is "business without borders," which has adouble meaning: business unhampered by the international border, but also unbound from what AIMS refers to as "policy distress factors" such as minimum wages, social program spending, environmental regulation, public ownership and unionization. This kind of language is eerily familiar to that of NAFTA and the FTAA, stemming from a neo-liberal agenda that aims to dismantle "trade barriers."
The results of Atlantica would be to expedite a race to the bottom for the majority of people in the region. Knowing this, the governments and institutions involved have tried to negotiate and implement this policy undemocratically behind closed doors.
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