Alliance for Responsible Trade

In neo-liberal rhetoric, the most important thing is the savings the state receives from competition among the providers of goods and services. This argument in no way compensates for the impact which liberalization of state procurement has on national production, much less the multiplying effect of injecting resources into the internal economy. Opting to prioritize efficiency in state purchasing, and in that way save a few million does not make up for the loss which occurs from failing to promote the national economy. The industrialized countries have all protected internal markets as a primary element of their development strategies.

For this reason, the PTA urges the countries participating in this process of integration based on solidarity to give priority to national companies as the exclusive providers to public entities. It must not be forgotten that in the majority of countries in the world, despite having been dismantled in recent years, national governments are the principal purchasers of goods and services. The Bolivian proposal establishes lists of priority suppliers, especially ethnic groups, cooperatives, and community companies, to avoid the destructive and impossible competition with transnational companies.

With this proposal of a Peoples Trade Agreement, Bolivia can achieve a true integration which transcends merely commercial and economic spheres- its philosophy is to achieve a development which is profoundly just and substantiated in communitarian principals which take into account national differences in relation to population, area, production, access to infrastructure, resources and history. This proposal has been developed out of the framework provided by the two most advanced proposals for integration with a different purpose, the ‘Alternatives for the Americas Document' produced by the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA) and the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, better known as ALBA.