Bush was determined to exploit the momentum gained during the violence and extortion of the Gulf
crisis to further the cause of Anglo-American economic war and trade war against Germany, Japan,the developing countries, and the Soviet bloc. In mid-February, in the midst of the Gulf war, Bush's (^)
resident harpie at the Trade Representative's Office, Carla Hills, had virtually declared war against
the western European Airbus consortium, accusing this group of firms of protectionism, subsidies,
and violations of exisiting GATT regulations. On June 27, 1990, Bush had announced his
"Enterprise for the Americas" in effect a plan for a free trade zone stretching fromTierra del Fuego, all to be subjected to unbridled looting by the US dollar. At that time Bush had the North Pole to
stated that "the US stands ready to enter into free trade agreements with other markets in Latin
America and the Caribbean... and the first step in this process is a trade agreement with Mexico."
During the Gulf buildup, Bush had met with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in
Salinas's home town of Agualeguas in northern Mexico. The leading item on the agenda was theWall Street demand for a US-Mexico free trade agreement which, together with the exisiting US-
Canada free trade arrangement, would amount to a North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA). The negotiation of this deal would begin during 1991. The essence of NAFTA was a
wholly deregulated free trade zone in which remaining factories and other businesses in the United
States would move their operations to Mexico in order to take advantage of an average hourly wageof 98 cents an hour as against $11 an hour in US manufacturing. The legal minimum wage in
Mexico was the equivalent of 59 cents an hour. It was a plan for runaway shops on an
unprecedented scale; the Mexican sweat shops or "maquiladoras" were so brutal in their
exploitative practices as to constitute an "Auschwitz below the border." Salinas visited Washington
on April 7, 1991, acommitted totally to the free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada," said Bush. "It is prioritynd Bush once again called for free trade with Mexico: "My administration is (^)
for the United States, the US government."
Then there was the Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The goal of the
Bushmen in in the GATT talks was to press forward towards what Bush called "global free trade;"all nations were to be coerced into giving up their inherent sovereign rights to intervene in favor of (^)
their own farmers, industrialists, and other producers. An important aspect of this thrust was the
Anglo-American demand that the European Community dismantle its system of payments to
farmers. In October, at the UN, Bush would press for the completion of GATT: "The Uruguay
Round offecan destroy wealth within countries and poison relations between them. rs hope to developing nations. I cannot stress enough...History shows that protectionism
Bush demanded from the US Congress the ability to negotiate both GATT and NAFTA on a "fast
track" basis. This meant that Bush wanted to be able to negotiate vital international trade
agreements, and then submit them to CongreCongress could make no amendments nor add statements of clarification; such rubber-stampingss on an all-or-nothing, take-it-or-leave-it basis. The
would undermine the right of the senate to provide advice and consent in treaties. There was
considerable resistance in Congress to the fast track for NAFTA and GATT, and this was backed up
by the rank and file of the AFL-CIO trade unions, who did not wish to see their jobs exported. But
the chances for stopping the fast track in the summer of 1991 wMissouri Congressman Richard Gephardt, whose ties to organized labor were strong, butere ruined by the defection of who (^)
neverthless came out in favor of the fast track on May 9. Gephardt had clashed with Bush during
1989, when Bush was recorded in the congressional press gallery as complaining "I tell you, I'm
displeased with Gephardt, the way he made it so really kind of personal." But during 1990,
Gephardt had settled into the Bush Democrat mould, except for some opposition to Bush's warpolicy in the Gulf. By 1991, Gephardt was in Bush's pocket. The fast track cleared Congress on (^)
May 23.
Bush sought to extend the zone of "free trade" looting ever southward. In mid-June, the Brazilian
President Collor de Mello came to the White House, where Bush greeted him as "my kind of guy."