A Honduran perspective on the recent Canada-Honduras FTA

[Joe Shlabotnik]

...Snip~

“In a country like Honduras, using free trade agreements to open the domestic economy to competition with countries with asymmetrical economies has only attracted transnational companies which operate and implement work systems that exploit Honduran women workers,” wrote the Honduran Women’s Collective (CODEMUH), in a statement in response to the signing of the Canada-Honduras FTA.

The organization is currently dealing with more than 100 textile factory workers who are suffering from work-related injuries and health conditions related to their employment by Gildan Activewear, a Montreal-based clothing manufacturer. The company operates several sewing and manufacturing facilities in northwestern Honduras, as well as others in Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Bangladesh. Gildan’s gross profits in 2012 were just shy of $400 million, while net earnings reached $148.5 million.

“Exploitative and enslaving working conditions – such as those which exist in Gildan Activewear headquartered in Canada and promoted by nation states and trade agreements – involve normal work days of an illegal 11 and a half hours, with obligatory overtime, bringing the work week to up to 69 hours,” according to the statement by CODEMUH.

Canadian companies and investors in Honduras have not only come under fire for their treatment of workers, but also for their impacts on communities.

“We have come to see that Canadian tourism has been the most aggressive in Garifuna communities in recent years,” said Miriam Miranda, General Coordinator of OFRANEH, an indigenous Garifuna federation. The lands and traditional territories of the 46 Garifuna communities spread up and down the Caribbean coast of Honduras are prime targets for tourism and real estate development projects. “There’s no respect whatsoever for the rights of Indigenous peoples,” said Miranda.

Canadian investor Randy Jorgensen’s Banana Coast project near the coastal city of Trujillo took off after the 2009 coup. Dubbed the “Porn King” for amassing a fortune from his Canadian porn chain, Jorgenson pressured Rio Negro residents to sell parcels of land they inhabited in order to secure coastal property in Trujillo for the construction of a Panamax cruise ship pier and massive commercial center.

“They used the Law of Forced Expropriation in the case of Trujillo, but it was used to impact Garifuna communities. They never use it to return land to Garifuna communities,” Miranda told Upside Down World. “The last people who refused to sell [their land] were told ‘if you don’t sell, we’ll take your land away.’”

From: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/4555-canada-signs-free-trade-deal-with-honduras-amid-pre-electoral-repression

In addition, Canadian influence has led to:

"a new two percent "Security Tax" on sales and exports, requiring companies to fund Honduran security forces. Reports of the involvement of State security forces in human rights violations, organized crime, torture and extra-judicial killings continue to surface."

From: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/3645-canada-and-chile-meddling-in-hondurass-economic-and-security-policies

[polly7]

1. God I hate these 'Free Trade' agreements.

They're anything but. It's guaranteed that the ones who can least afford to lose out, will lose the most.

[riverbendviewgal]

2. I hate FATCA

Done in secrecy . it is an extortion action against all the countries of the world by the irs