By Paul Weinberg
TORONTO, Nov 22 1996 (IPS)

Workers in neither country will benefit from the free-trade agreement reached this week between Canada and Chile, according to Canadian labour activists.

The Canada-Chile Coalition for Fair Trade denounced the trade accord at a government-sponsored forum promoting the deal and Canadian investment in Chile held here the day after the agreement was signed.

But the coalition, which purchased display space specifically to air its opposition, was the lone dissenting voice at the gathering that attracted about 700 Canadian business people.

Much louder were the voices of Chilean President Eduardo Frei, his economic and mining ministers, Chilean business executives, and Canadians active in Chile. They all praised the new bilateral deal, which is viewed widely as a stepping stone for Chile joining Canada, Mexico and the United States in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The pact eliminates the 11-percent duty Chile currently places on all Canadian imports, and it reduces tariffs on textile and agricultural exports from both countries. Proponents say it will boost the volume of trade between Chile and Canada, which last year totaled about 500 million US dollars.

“I would like to invite you to take part in our creative efforts to make our country a modern, fair, developed, just and free society,” Frei, who signed the trade accord Monday with Canadian Prime Minster Jean Chretien.

The Chilean president boasted how his nation of 14 million people has achieved tremendous economic growth — estimated at six percent annually — leading to a reduction in poverty. He also stressed his government’s commitment to education reform.

Frei and other Chileans attributed the economic and social stability of their country to its strong global-export orientation.

And, according to mining minister Benjamin Teplizky, the country’s economic growth “is compatible with the protection of the environment.” He stressed that officials have taken a “gradual approach,” rooted in “realism,” in their regulation of the mining sector.

Canadian union officials, however, painted a very different picture of Chile’s economic success and its commitment to a clean environment. They argued that the Canada-Chile free trade agreement enshrines weak environmental and labour laws in Chile.

Lawrence McBrearty, national director of the United Steelworkers, a member of the Canada-Chile Coalition for Fair Trade, said the failure to ensure basic standards in the agreement for Chilean workers puts them at risk.

“Field and warehouse workers in the country’s large agricultural-export industry are routinely exposed to chemicals and pesticides that are banned in the markets into which they are being sold,” he said.

The steelworkers director added that lax environmental regulations also extend to the mining sector, where the government permits arsenic to be used in ore processing in ways that are illegal in Canada, leading to serious health and safety problems.

One miner at El Indo mine in La Serena, according to McBrearty, reported that more than 30 percent of miners are chronically sick, suffering from such illnesses as silicosis, pneumonia, bronchitis, kidney failure, arsenic poisoning, and lung and testicular cancer. The facility is owned by Barrick Gold Corp., which is among the Canadian mining firms that already have invested billions of dollars in Chile.

Under Frei, Chile has lowered its legal standards for arsenic present in water or the air, added Alan Young, executive director of the Environmental Mining Council of British Columbia, a coalition based in western Canada.

Young said many Canadian mining companies operating in Chile actively campaigned for looser industry regulations during the recent provincial election in British Columbia. The election, he pointed out, was won by the ruling New Democratic Party, which has resisted mining company efforts to weaken regulations.

The United Steelworkers represent most miners in Canada, and the union works closely on health and safety issues with Chilean miners employed by the same Canadian mining companies.

One recent example of this mutual assistance was the efforts by the Canadian union to publicise the discovery of dangerous levels of mercury — 100 percent higher than permitted under Chilean law — in six out of 10 workers at a Placer Dome mine in Chile, according to Gerry Barr, the United Steelworkers international affairs representative.

The union’s efforts, he said, paid off, as it eventually pressured the Canadian company to improve working conditions at it Chilean mine.

“The Chilean government worked with mining companies to draft its environmental law,” said Ken Traynor, a researcher with the Canadian Environmental Law Association.

Labour activists note that, in addition to threats to their health and safety, Chilean workers continue to face difficulties in organising. Barr said the country’s labour code has been “barely reconstructed” since the days of the notoriously repressive military regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

“There are a number of cases where workers have been canvassed for union loyalties and excluded from employment,” Barr said.

Labour’s opposition, however, failed to diminish the enthusiasm of Canadian corporate executives who attended the free-trade forum.

Among those praising the opportunity Canadian firms now have to take advantage of Chile’s economic reforms was Peter Munk, chairman of Barrick Gold.

“It is entirely due to President Frei’s government,” Munk said about the “attitude of the workers, the lack of administrative and bureaucratic constraints, the extended stability of the currency.”

Chilean officials, he continued, have created “an atmosphere which I consider to be one of the most pro-business of all countries we work in.”

Excerpt: