The commercial treaties designed in the North facilitate the development and expansion of the capitalist system on a global stage which is based on unlimited exploitation of natural resources and people in the constant search for individual wealth accumulation. This vision inevitably leads to a degradation of the environment. The contamination and degradation which occurs as a result of this pursuit of riches places at risk the life of the people who live most closely connected to nature, the indigenous communities.
The FTAs produce the fracturing and subsequent disappearing of indigenous communities, not only through destruction of habitat, but also by forcing them into an unequal competition and conditions in comparison to the huge corporations of the north.
The PTA questions the sustainability of the ‘economic growth' theory, and the western culture of waste, which measures the development of a country based on the consumption capacity of its citizens. We want to suggest a different ‘logic' for human relationships; in other words, a way of living together which is not based on competition and zeal to accumulate that exploits labor and natural resources to the maximum.
Recovering the essence of indigenous culture, the PTA postulates complementarity rather than competition, living in harmony with nature rather than irrational resource exploitation; defense of social property versus extreme privatization; the promotion of cultural diversity rather than mono-culture and uniformity of markets and consumption patterns.