The Cartagena Protocol was founded on the basis of Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration which states; “In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” (Rio Declaration) The Cartagena Protocol was monumental because it was the first international agreement to acknowledge that GMO crops could likely pose threats to a countries’ biodiversity and the health of their citizens, and it set forth measures for regulating GMOs. If an importing country has questions about the …show more content…
These policies almost led to a small civil war within Mexico the day NAFTA was implanted. A group of indigenous nationals called “Zapatistas” were enraged that Mexico had ratified NAFTA and demanded that it be repealed under the threat that Mexico’s minority and poor would be mitigated to second class citizens their rights undermined. These specific issue at hand was that they claimed NAFTA violated Mexico’s constitution and no such agreement could be ratified if it was illegal. In response to the issue with the constitution, Mexico had to alter it so that NAFTA fell between bounds. In particular, Article 27 which was fought over in the Mexican Revolutionary War. It stated that certain lands within the state of Chiapas, where the Zapatista movement started, and around Mexico were safe from the future sale to corporations, or exploitation of the natural resources. It was in essence a protection for the indigenous people who lived in these lands. NAFTA infringed on these rights because it needed to allow foreign companies entrance to these lands, so in favor of neo-liberal ideas, President Salinas amended the Mexican constitution to allow the state to sell these property right to corporations. This incited a rebellion from these people in 1994 leading to instability within the country, and one of the culminating reasons that led to the Mexican Peso Crisis of
All walks of life are presented, from prevailing businessmen of white-collar status, to those of the working class and labor industry, as well as individuals who deal in the black market of smuggling illegal immigrants across the border into the U.S. Hellman’s work explores the subject of Mexico’s economic situation in the 1990s. NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) closely tied the United States and Mexico during this period, as well as similar policies such as GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) that were also created. These issues pertaining to economic policies between the two nations, Mexico and the United States are seen highlighted throughout her work.
The basic model employed after Cardenas to promote growth in the Mexican economy was Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI), whereby Mexico attempted to build domestic industry and a domestic market. The strategy quickly started paying dividends, and the “import-substitution policies of the Mexican state were successful in generating rapid and sustained economic growth” (Sharpe 28). ISI ushered in the “Mexican Miracle” of economic growth; the Mexican growth hovered around 6% annually for some thirty years (Hellman 1). The government created incentives for investment and lowered taxation to spur domestic investment. Despite the strong economic indicators, the spoils of growth were not shared by many.
The border region has seen “rapid transformation in a short span of time, changing from a cattle ranching and mining area that attracted U.S., Mexican and European capitalists…to the center of a lucrative vice and pleasure-based tourist industry, to a region that …attracted an extraordinary amount of international capital to its manufacturing and services sector”. (Ganster/Lorey 2) Events and years such as the implementation of the railroad, the years before the Mexican Revolution, the land reform in 1936 and 1937, the implementation of the maquiladora program and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a significant impact on the U.S. Mexican Borderlands.
Mexican-Style Neoliberalism: State Policy and Distributional Stress.? in The Post NAFTA Political Economy: Mexico and the Western Hemisphere, Carol Wise, ed. University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. ?
Carrillo-Huerta, M., & Bonilla, I. M. (2005). The effect of NAFTA on mexican agricultural exports to the united states: The case of coffee beans, 1970-2003. The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance & Business Ventures, 10(2), 76-93. Retrieved from http://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/55949/1/662664000.pdf
The administration believed that NAFTA would create high-wage U.S jobs that would help expand businesses and the economy—making the U.S. the biggest exporter in the world with the biggest global market (Woods 287-288). Also, since many immigrants sought job opportunities in the U.S., NAFTA was to keep Mexicans in Mexico. Providing jobs in Mexico would allow U.S. workers to work for higher wages if there was a reduction in immigration (Woods 287). Woods also state that NAFTA would barely affect any change in the U.S., but for Mexico, there would be drastic changes. It will create even more ties and communication between the two countries. It will remove restrictions set between the two countries (288-289). Although the Clinton administration saw NAFTA creating a positive change between countries, the effects of NAFTA were the opposite of what was
...sm in democracies such as the United States, the Mexican economy seemed too vulnerable and easily controlled by foreign investors to operate in a globalized open market.
In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico in an attempt to acquire the disputed Rio Grande. It was after the US annexation coupled with failed efforts to purchase the territory from Mexico. The war went on for close to two years. By the end of this period, the US was divided on whether or not the merits exceeded the demerits. The Congress, for example, debated about how much was enough territory for the US to acquire when the war ended. Eventually, the US and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty provided an understanding between the two governments. This paper will analyze the effects of the agreement about the welfare of the Mexican people.
...t: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "GMO-Crop Crisis a Rapidly Growing Concern." Santa Fe New Mexican 21 Oct. 2008. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
With The North American Free Trade Agreement as a main example, the opposing view for the agreement include groups of citizens involved in manual labor and various spiritual groups. These citizens argued that free trade would eventually take away hundreds of American jobs. They believed the trade agreement would take away all democratic power of domestic procedure. On the other hand, there are positives for having the NAFTA set into place. Some of the world 's largest corporations promised it would create hundreds of thousands of new high-wage American jobs, raise living standards in all nations involved and above all else the agreement would improve environmental conditions. The North American Free Trade Agreement was promised to transform Mexico from a deprived developing nation into a thriving new market for American exports to be
The NAFTA is involved in this phenomenon because since the agreement involves Mexico it in turn creates job opportunities for the Mexicans and on top of that Mexican workers are part of an underdeveloped country which in turn means they are going to get less money due to the condition of their economy. And for American businessmen that is a very desirable quality in a potential employee due to how much profit the companies and factories will make simply by giving more low paying jobs to Mexicans and decreasing the American workforce. This source relates to economic globalization, because the NAFTA is essentially an economic agreement between major countries to save money and reduce trading taxes. This agreement causes an economic rise in all of these countries by causing an increase in jobs in Mexico and increasing companies’ profits in the US and
The significance of the Mexican revolution lies not in the repercussions this insurrection exerted on the international level, but rather in the way it served as a precursor to the direction the 20th century would follow. For while Mexico had gained significance internationally by being a leading exporter of raw material under Porfioro Diaz, it was not the only Latin American, or Luso-American country to follow this route. One must also bear in mind that the materials being exported out of Mexico are not exclusive to the region. Even within it’s geographic hemisphere, the Mexican revolution did not lead to the massive changes that the American Revolution had caused. Yet that is not to say that the Mexican revolution is not a significant event, for it established the rebellious pattern the 20th century would take.
Genetically modified (GM) foods have become omnipresent over the past decade. They are a technological breakthrough that allows humans to manipulate and add foreign genes to crops to enhance desired traits, but they have also evolved into a controversial issue, especially for Third World countries. Some people believe that GM foods not only provide larger yields to feed hungry citizens in Third World countries, but they can also be a source of great nutritional value. For example, researchers have developed a strain of golden rice containing high amounts of vitamin A and numerous other vitamins and minerals. Additionally, GM crops are laced with herbicides and pesticides, and therefore reduce the need for chemical consumption. Opponents of GM foods claim that they pose a threat to the health of consumers and that these crops could eventually cross-pollinate in an unregulated fashion or lead to the growth of superweeds and superbugs resistant to the herbicides and pesticides woven into the genetic fiber of the crops. Developed nations should promote research and monitoring from an ethical point of view and financial assistance through philanthropic ventures in order to limit environmental and health risks. They should also make sure that limited cultural displacement will result from the introduction of GM crops and that instead, a better livelihood and well-being through collaboration will emerge. Hence, GM crops should be introduced only provided that the developed nations assume the ethical and financial responsibilities for the environmental, health, and social consequences that attend this new innovation.
In The Development of Environmental Regimes: Chemicals, Wastes, and Climate Change, the authors provide a simple framework to analyze the development of global environmental regimes (GER) which ultimately addresses why states sometimes agree to cooperate on global environmental issues despite divergent interests. The chapter is divided into five subsections but begins with an introduction to explain the five processes involved in the development of GERs. The authors address questions such as who forms GERs and how are they formulated. Next, they apply the processes involved in the development of GERs to four case studies that are linked to global environmental issues: ozone depletion, hazardous waste, toxic chemicals, and climate change, respectively. The authors conclude that states and non-state actors can come together to address global environmental issues but not without obstacles.
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992) The Declaration of Rio on Environment and Development [Online] Available at: http://www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=78&ArticleID=1163