U.S. Corporations Aim to Use FTAA to Swallow Latin American Companies

A number of large U.S. corporations have written a joint letter to the Bush administration outlining their demands for uncontrolled investment in Latin America through the mechanism of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The companies include Chevron, Daimler-Chrysler, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Eastman Chemical, Estee Lauder, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Honeywell, International Paper, 3M, Motorola, Proctor and Gamble, Texaco, and UPS among others. The list is a virtual "who's who" of the U.S. corporate world.

The main demand of these corporate giants is for the FTAA to allow all investments to have 100 percent foreign capital. This would allow them to easily swallow up national companies. In addition, their letter asked for protection against direct and indirect expropriation, including safeguards against regulations that erode the value of their assets.

The letter was sent to the Bush administration one day before the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April. However, it was not revealed until presented to a Congress subcommittee three weeks later.