Madam Speaker, I want to pursue two things. The member suggested that Tony Blair, the prime minister of Great Britain, is an uncritical embracer of free trade no matter what it looks like. That is simply dead wrong. Tony Blair knows that the European model for freer trade is different in substance and process from the FTAA and is based on exactly the opposite set of principles.
It is absolutely true that Tony Blair is in favour of liberalizing trade. It is also true that the New Democratic Party is in favour of opening up trade opportunities for the Americas. The countries of the Americas want and deserve freer trade. However the hon. member conveniently ignores that the European form of liberalized trade is based on a democratic and parliamentary process.
There is no parliament of the Americas. There is, however, a European parliament which sets out explicit standards for working conditions, human rights, environmental protection and cultural diversity. It enforces its standards and makes conformity to them a condition of membership in the European Union.
The FTAA model is based on exactly the opposite. There is no democratic process at an international, hemispheric wide level. Behind closed doors we have those kinds of discussions going on and we have the preferential access of the big corporations, with 500 of the major CEOs of those mega corporations having access to the text, which the people of Canada and the people of the other Americas still do not have access to. In process it is fundamentally different. As my colleague from Burnaby—Douglas has pointed out again today, in substance it is absolutely the case that there is nothing enforceable about the side agreements on labour and the environment. The record absolutely shows that.
The second thing I would like to say is that if the hon. member had been in attendance at some of the forums that made up the people's summit, he would have understood that people from countries such as Ecuador, Peru and Colombia are absolutely terrified of any agreement that would give even more power to the multinational corporations than they already have over those people's lives.
If the hon. member could have heard about the working conditions they are suffering, he would surely think twice before he would support NAFTA chapter 11, which will give those developing countries even fewer democratic instruments with which to raise their standard of living and protect their environment, their cultures and their working rights.