Aborigines and Free Trade
The Impact of US Trade Agreements on Indigenous Peoples
In Australia a free trade agreement with the United States means bad news for Aboriginal communities, just as it was for First Nations in Mexico, Chile and Canada.
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are now in a similar position regarding a lack of consultation over a free trade agreement with the US. Australia's sovereignty has been abandoned with a free trade agreement with the US, as at any time under this agreement the government could be overridden with regard to any policy impacting on trade. This also impacts on Aboriginal sovereignty and Indigenous rights in Australia.
Free Trade and Aboriginal Australia
A legacy of the Howard government, this agreement was justified economically, as providing more jobs and freer markets. Despite a couple of vague exemptions relating to guarantees of Aboriginal health and welfare policy, there are no controls in place to protect cultural and intellectual property rights. As a result, this free trade agreement will mean open season for pharmaceutical companies and agricultural bio-prospectors to strip Aboriginal lands and cultures of intellectual and ecological property.
All Australians will feel the impact of higher prices for medicine as US companies raise costs under the Pharmaceutical Benefits scheme, but as Indigenous people have the highest levels of illness and the lowest levels of income, this will affect Aborigines more than any other group.
Free Trade and Native Americans
Native Americans know well the impact of such free trade agreements, having already experienced the full impact of NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement), which promoted virtual slavery in Mexico for Indigenous peoples. First Nations peoples of Canada, North and South America and the US have experienced first hand the negative effects of NAFTA, which bulldozes its way over social and environmental issues in the name of "freedom". It must be clarified that freedom in the context of trade has no emancipatory intent for oppressed peoples, but means instead a lack of accountability for corporations in their destruction of (and theft from) local communities, economies and ecosystems.
Free Trade and the Mapuche of Chile
Another example of a similar trade agreement impacting negatively on Indigenous people is that of the agreement between The European Union and Chile. The Mapuche (Native People of Chile) have pointed out that the agreement does not meet the standards and ethical principles of the EU, as it completely disregards human rights, aboriginal rights and environmental protection. The agreement opens the door for multinational corporations and Chilean export businesses to increase the already rapacious stripping of natural resources and indigenous knowledge from the traditional estates of the Mapuche. Water supplies have been polluted and sacred sites have been compromised, while forestry companies have illegally taken possession of millions of hectares of Mapuche land. It is interesting to note that the highest levels of aboriginal poverty exist on the boundaries of these forestry enterprises, a fact that highlights the socio-economic impact of unchecked enterprise on native peoples.
Aboriginal rights guaranteed under the Chilean constitution have been swept aside in this massive land grab. Human rights abuses in this action have included torture and detention without trial. Under a free trade agreement, any policy for change in this situation can be overridden under the terms of the agreement.
Indigenous Australia could face similar issues under a free trade agreement with the US, and with the recent military intervention in the Northern Territory, which effectively suspended the racial discrimination act and virtually declared a state of martial law in Aboriginal communities, an Australian scenario similar to that in Chile does not seem too far-fetched.
