The Mirabel menace

>> Will plans for a free trade zone create a Third World economy in Quebec?

by JACQUIE CHARLTON

A foreign trade zone at Mirabel Airport, possibly the first of its kind in Canada, is raising the spectre of free enterprise zones--like those in Mexico, Asia and Central America, notorious for exploiting workers and harming the environment--here in Quebec.

Union leaders at the Canadian Labour Congress have told the Mirror that foreign trade zones, also called export processing zones (EPZs), free trade or free enterprise zones in their harsher incarnations, may take whatever exploitive form they want once installed--even if they're initially set up with promises that labour and environmental standards will be respected.

"Companies that seek out export processing zones are also the type that seek out cheap labour, absence of unions and poorly enforced labour and environmental legislation," says Anna Nitoslawska, responsible for the Latin America office of the Canadian Labour Congress. EPZs currently exist in nations such as Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, Costa Rica and Venezuela, but not in the U.S. or western Europe.

Tax holidays galore

The Montreal Foreign Trade Zone at Mirabel seeks to turn the under-used airport into a foreign trade zone, where not only will corporations be exempt from customs duties, but will be eligible for tax credits on purchases or leasing of equipment, financial assistance for building construction and exemptions on income tax, capital taxes and health service fund contributions. They'll also benefit from a bevy of government-supplied head hunting, training and bookkeeping specialists, loan guarantees and interest holidays and permission for their foreign specialists to work here income tax-free.

Henri Massé, president of the Fédération des travailleur(e)s du Québec, says he is ready to collaborate with the government on its foreign trade zone as long as Quebec labour laws will be respected within it and as long as it doesn't "cannibalize" other industries; that is, rob business from companies who aren't benefiting from the same government help.

But the Canadian Labour Congress is viewing the plan with more caution. Bertrand Bégin, who is the CLC's Atlantic representative, has been put on his guard with the New Brunswick government's proposal to set up an "industrial zone" in Lorneville, a suburb of Saint John.

Race to the bottom

Bégin notes that the Mirabel and Lorneville zones would be competing not only with local companies, but with other EPZs around the world. Without close monitoring, he says, there will be steady downward pressure on workers' rights to the benefit of corporations. "The minimum wage in New Brunswick is $5.50 an hour. How can you compete with a country where people are paid $1.25 or $2 a day?"

The Moncton office of the CLC has issued a code of conduct for the proposed Lorneville zone, asking that corporations in the zone uphold labour and environmental standards. Bégin says he doubts the protocol will be respected: "If they want to go ahead, there's no way we can stop them."

Certainly, the Quebec government's proposal for the free trade zone reads with an obsequiousness that wouldn't seem out of place at a fancy hotel. The corporation set up to streamline foreign investors' entry--called the Société de dévelopement de la Zone de commerce internationale de Montréal à Mirabel--will, for example, "coordinate the partners and promotional initiatives and offer reception and other services to investors," and act as a "multiservice outlet for enterprises."

Abraham Assayag, assistant deputy minister of economic policy with the Ministère des finances, says workers' rights in the new zone will be respected "absolutely." But he doesn't underestimate the effort involved in attracting foreign businesses when there's a multitude of other cheap sites in the world. He says the government is launching an international advertising campaign aimed at foreign investors within the next few months to promote the Mirabel zone: "The idea is to really work hard to attract them."