NAFTA, CAFTA, and the WTO

Environmental Conservation Organization ^ | August 1, 2005 | Henry Lamb

[hedgetrimmer]

These acronyms, NAFTA, CAFTA, and the WTO, are a weird blend of alphabet soup that provides nourishment for almost all participants - except the United States.

The people who lost their jobs when 354 textile plants closed, just since 1997, are not nourished by this alphabet soup. The people in Asian sweat shops are.

The farmers in Iowa, and across the country, whose exports are declining, are not nourished by this alphabet soup. Non-American farmers are.

As our trade deficit worsens, our trading partners get healthier, while Americans suffer.


These trade agreements were sold to Congress, and to the American people, as "Free Trade" agreements. Nothing could be further from the truth. These agreements are actually mountains of regulations, developed and enforced by unelected bureaucrats. They are, in fact, agreements by participating nations, to allow unelected bureaucrats to manage trade among the participants.

These trade agreements have extraordinary legal power. The decisions of an appointed international tribunal have the power to force participating nations to conform their laws to comply with the tribunal's decisions - or face economic penalties.

Since these trade agreements are international in nature, and have the force of law, they are actually treaties, which require a super-majority in the Senate for ratification. By calling them "trade agreements," instead of the treaties they are, only a simple majority is needed for passage.

After 10 years of watching plant closings and swelling trade deficits, the administration, and many in Congress, have pushed through the Central American Free Trade Agreement - CAFTA. The consequences of this entanglement go far beyond the adverse economic impacts.

This agreement is another step toward the creation of a trade-governing mechanism in the Western hemisphere similar to the European Common Market, and its subsequent European Union. The sales pitch in the U.S. claims the agreement will open new markets for U.S. products. In reality, it opens new opportunities for American industry to move to countries where labor costs are a fraction of U.S. labor costs, and where environmental and regulatory compliance costs are almost non-existent.

These agreements open U.S. markets to products produced without the safety and environmental standards, and the attendant costs, that U.S. products must include. That's why an America flag made in America costs twice as much as a flag made in Mexico, or China. That's why the Florida tomato industry evaporated, when NAFTA went into force. That's why the American economy is losing its capacity to produce the products Americans need. Each new agreement makes the U.S. more and more dependent upon other nations, for the products it requires.

Once the capacity to produce is lost, the possibility of rebuilding that capacity is remote. Consider what it would take to rebuild the steel industry to the level that it could supply American demand. Not only is the cost prohibitive, but the regulatory climate is also prohibitive. It is the regulatory climate that has prevented the energy industry from keeping up with demand. That's why our dependence on foreign sources of energy has continued to rise, from decade to decade.

Congress, and the American people, should realize that the ultimate goal of these trade agreements has nothing to do with what is best for the United States, or its people. It has everything to do with benefitting everyone else. Congress, and the American people, should realize that the prosperity this nation has built is the result of self-reliance, which we should not allow to be traded away.

Finally, there is the matter of national sovereignty. Proponents of these trade agreements praise the dispute resolution process that forces compliance by all participants. They claim this provides a degree of predictability on which business can depend. It also forces Americans to submit to a force of law that was not enacted by elected representatives. This grinds underfoot the whole concept of "...government empowered by the consent of the governed."

When Americans are forced to comply with a ruling of an appointed international tribunal, the idea of national sovereignty goes out the window. This, of course, is prerequisite to the emergence of global governance. NAFTA, CAFTA, and the WTO are more than nourishment for the one-worlders. They are vitamin-packed, steroid-enriched injections of global governance.

[CobaltBlue]

Meanwhile, in the real world, American economy is booming and unemployment is low.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[hedgetrimmer]

CAFTA PING

If you want on or off the list, let me know.

[cripplecreek]

Just slap a golden arches across a map of Michigan and call us done.

[hedgetrimmer]

Meanwhile in China the economy is booming. Yet they have slave labor there, no respect for indiviudal rights, and no real elected representation.

So your point is?

[cripplecreek]

One of these days someone will have to supply more than vague numbers regarding unemployment and economy. Someone needs to show me the companies that are supposedly hiring all these people, and they need to show me how much the employees are making opposed to cost of living and past jobs. I want to know how many of those people are part time or temp service workers.

[CobaltBlue]

The data is there if you care to look for it.

[cripplecreek]

LOL sure it is.

[hedgetrimmer]

Post it, please.

[CobaltBlue]

Post "it"? How about specifying which data set you are interested in.

[hedgetrimmer]

How many of the new jobs created go to immigrant (and illegal immigrant labor)?

How many of the new jobs are low skill or service jobs.

How many are manufacturing?

How many in finance?

How many in Ag?

How many in textiles?

How many in tech? How many of the tech jobs taken by H1b workers?

[Iscool]

It's like they say, figures lie and liars figure...

Get out away from the computor screen and look at all the empty buildings that housed factories and other businesses that now stand empty...

Go to any store and try to find something NOT made in a 3rd world country...

Go look for a job...See if you can get a real one as opposed to temporary employment...Oh, that's right, we call that 'Contract Work'...
Ha...My employer now hires engineers thru Manpower...Contract Assignments they call 'em...

You anti-American Sovereignty people may be duped but most of the country's population isn't...

[Dat Mon]

Details...always details!

We can build our economy of the 21st century primarily on paper management, finance, and other service jobs...an' everythins' peachy as long as the earnings and bonus checks keep coming in.

When somebody drops a bomb on your ass...or you need to put military equipment comprised of manufactured hardware...designed by American engineers into a combat engagement...service alone don't quite cut it.

[NRA2BFree]

Meanwhile, in the real world fantasy land, American economy is booming and unemployment is low.

This morning I heard the prez give his little song and dance about how many more people are employed today than have been in a gazillion years. HA! HA! What a crock!

The jobs that Americans are doing now are in NO WAY as good as the jobs they lost. Many of the union jobs paid in the low 6 figures, and there's NO WAY working as a clerk or a cashier is going to match that. Many of those people already lost their homes, and will never be able to own another one. Many of them are having to work two jobs just to make ends meet. Bottom line: Americans had to suffer loss so big corporations could make billions of dollars in profit, and greedy politicians could line their pockets!!

[CobaltBlue]

Here's the link to the Department of Labor statistics for employment (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
http://www.bls.gov/ces/

Based on comments on the thread, I feel that any more effort on my part would be wasted because you will just reject them as bogus.

If I am wrong and you're willing to accept the BLS data, we can talk about it.

[Nowhere Man]

Meanwhile, in the real world, American economy is booming and unemployment is low.

The relative "prosperty" is financed though the massive debt bubble that is growing. Take a look around where there are record bankruptcies and the recent bankruptcy reform, makes me thing something will be "going down" soon, rela estate bubble bursting maybe, don't know exactly but I often wonder. Unemployment figures down, well that can be explained to where many are under-employed or some have stopped looking for work and are participating in an underground economy, off the radar so to speak. I know many people like that. It's like the Three Monkey's, "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil." My father always told me this on many things like these, "don't believe 'The Man' on everything."

[Just A Nobody]

Thanks for the ping. Article came out a little late.

[CobaltBlue]

I belong to the American Bankruptcy Institute -- they did research on the new bankruptcy laws and say that 85% of the people who filed chapter 7 under the old law have a low enough income not to trigger the means test, and of the remaining 15%, they don't have enough information to know if they'd get caught by the means test or not, but assume that at least some would be able to meet the test.

So, it doesn't look like the new law is actually going to change bankruptcy filing eligibility all that much.

For what it's worth.

The belief that the world is going to hell in a handbasket is hard-wired in some people, they are called pessimists.

As Reagan remarked, if you give a pessimist a free pony, he'll complain because now he has to shovel out the stable!