Posted on 07/09/2005 2:01:21 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- "CAFTA is NAFTA on steroids," said Kent Snyder, executive director of The Liberty Committee, a group whose motto is "Political Action From Principle."
Affiliated with congressional representative Ron Paul, R-Texas -- who also opposes the Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic -- the committee holds that CAFTA-DR, like the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement isn't really about true free trade; it's about global managed trade.
"Think about it," Snyder said. "Why does it take over 1,000 pages to define free trade?"
In administrative works for several years CAFTA would create a NAFTA-like free trade zone between the United States and six other countries -- the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It would erase most quotas and tariffs on imported goods and services. The trade agreement finally reached a Senate vote June 30. It passed by a narrow margin of 54-45 and moves to the House for a vote sometime next week.
Snyder said the agreement will no doubt be decided "by as little as three or four votes."
"The upcoming vote on CAFTA promises a replay of mafia-style tactics used to coerce votes from reluctant House members," he said. "Already, arms are being twisted; deals and pork payoffs are being made with your tax dollars; political threats have been issued -- and that's only the beginning."
Relinquishing U.S. sovereignty is the biggest reason to oppose CAFTA, he said.
"Then it's the economy, and the list goes down from there," he said.
Snyder referenced CAFTA-DR article 10.16.3 that "places the United States under the jurisdiction of international tribunals supervised by the United Nations."
Article 10.5.2 says international tribunals must use "customary international law" as established by "principle legal systems of the world" when deciding cases.
"CAFTA, like NAFTA, treats the U.S. Constitution like a relic," Snyder said.
Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center, Warrenton, Va., said U.S. sovereignty is absolutely the No. 1 concern with CAFTA.
"Sovereignty is a question of who is in control," he said. "A nation should be in control of it own destiny and should not voluntarily relinquish that control.
"CAFTA is a danger to our independence and to our sovereignty, and it is the job of the U.S. government to protect Americans first," he said.
DeWeese said the trade agreement, like those that have gone before it are simply "a raid on our economy."
"It is a redistribution of wealth, and who has the most wealth?" he asked. "The United States does."
DeWeese said he supports free trade but not the "CAFTA truckload of regulations that tell you how to do it."
Information from the United States Trade Representative's office confirmed that CAFTA-DR countries already enjoy duty free access to the United States on up to 80 percent of their goods exported to the United States. For agriculture exports, CAFTA would reduce tariffs on many U.S goods going to Central America, but just as many would not be duty-free for at least another one to 15 years, the USTR office said.
Under the agreement, American taxpayers will also pay to develop trade with those nations. National Action Plans have been designed to identify each country's trade-capacity-building needs and funnel money from public (and private) sources ... "to make the transition and changes necessary to realize the linkage between trade and development."
Joel Gill, membership chairman for R-CALF USA, a national cattlemen's group, traveled on a fact-finding mission to Central America.
Gill said under CAFTA-DR, normal trade relations using supply quota for imports are not included.
"Beef has been declassified as a perishable and cyclical product, making it immune to 'snapbacks' or quotas of beef entering the country," he said.
Gill noted, too, that the two biggest cattle-producing countries in South America, Argentina and Brazil, could begin shipping cattle to Central America and then on to the United States under CAFTA-DR.
"We are being told that CAFTA is really the model for other trade agreements, like the Free Trade Area of the Americas," he said, adding the FTAA plans to link 34 nations -- the Western Hemisphere -- under one trade agreement.
"Brazil alone produces as much beef as the United State does," Gill said.
Observing intense poverty in some Central American countries, Gill said he isn't buying the claims of equitable trade opportunities.
"Their food-delivery system is sometimes a man on a bicycle with half a beef cutting off pieces for people to buy." That, he said, "flies in the face of all the great trading opportunities we are hearing about with CAFTA."
Idaho opposed
* Sen. Mike Crapo: Growers were not satisfied by administration promises to buy or keep out subsidized sugar entering the country under CAFTA, NAFTA, and new free trade agreements until the end of the current Farm Bill.
* Sen. Larry Craig: The United States should not trade one aspect of our economy for another. This agreement sacrifices the sugar industry -- a vital component of rural, southern Idaho.
RFB:
Thanks for the ping Hedge. I see you have a few nuts responding. Some are too lazy to do their own homework. ****w'em.
This opens the door for all plumbers, electrician, HVAC, doctors, teachers, nurses, etc. that think that our licensing standardsI don't know that the local 'code inspector' is going to have the regulations he uses to accept or reject a contractors work 'rewritten' to fit some reduced standards or not; I kinda doubt it ...
I also doubt that the NEC (National Electrical Code) is going to "dumbed down" either. As to the schools, well, we would seem to 'be there' already (AND we've already got doctors from all over the world practicing medicine here)!
You mean we can't just raise the drawbridge, lower the porcullas, and ignore the rest of the world?
You don't think inspectors are paid off?? hehehe..
I can tell you a story from just last week.
RYLAND HOMES.
Alex Jones presents:
In Your Face: The Globalists' Language is Hidden in Plain View
Fascinated by symbolism and numerology, the globalists' favorite tactic is to leave blueprints to their plans "hidden in plain view."!!GASP!!From messages delivered to the masses through the media and films to Time Warner's all-seeing eye, we are repeatedly reminded by the illuminati themselves that they are controlling us and are omnipresent.
World leaders from Clinton to Prince William have been photographed proudly flashing the sign of the devil.
Architecture around the globe is laid out to represent their occult icons or structured based on occult numerology (like the pyramid Mitterand had constructed at the Louvre, which is made of 666 pieces of gold glass).
The New World Order's symbolism is everywhere and there are globalist fingerprints all over the September 11th attacks as well as the Madrid train bombing.
Only in our minds.
You don't think inspectors are paid off?? hehehe..From CAFTA?
It's not even in effect yet ...
DO they get 'bought off' regardless -
If Christ can be sold out/pointed out for just 30 pieces of silver by a 'friend' (Judas), ANYTHING is possible ...
My Congressman, Jim Kolbe, was at our district meeting this morning. He stated that CAFTA was essential, and that the jobs created in Central America would prevent illegals from those countries from coming here seeking work.
Funny... I recall in 1993 when he said the same thing about illegal Mexicans and NAFTA. Boy, that sure worked out, didn't it.....
Could you try that again, and make sense next time.WHAT part of 'anything is possible' didn't you understand anyway?
PAYING BRIBES/accepting same and 'putting a thumb on the scale' are as old as mankind and KNOWN about by anybody with street sense, unless, of course you just fell off the turnip truck ...
You definitely have a problem starting a conversation in a nice way don't you?
I made a nice simple request and still you dont get it.
See ya jumbo..
I recall in 1993 when he said the same thing about illegal Mexicans and NAFTA. Boy, that sure worked out, didn't it....Might I propose that those are actually people from the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica making their way through Mexico into the US?
Weak, I know, but logical and possible ...
You definitely have a problem starting a conversation in a nice way don't you?Oh yeah - it's ALL my fault!
I was *only* taking somebody else's lead, you know, from the words that look like these that were posted earlier:
Could you try that again, and make sense next time.
A Laborious AgreementMORE - Visit link
- 06/17/2005
by Dean Kleckner, Truth About Trade and TechnologyI'm happy to announce that the U.S. House of Representative has delivered a resounding victory for free trade. Last week, by a vote of 338-86, members rejected a proposal to withdraw from the World Trade Organization. At a time when political sentiment in Washington seems to be swinging toward protectionism, it is encouraging to see more than three-quarters of the House come down squarely on the side of international commerce.
But the result of the vote was a negative accomplishment--i.e., it avoided a manifest catastrophe, rather than achieving a positive good. As we move ahead, Congress should build on its recent record of expanding free trade with Australia , Jordan , and Morocco . It can do this by approving CAFTA-DR, an important agreement between the United States, Central America, and the Dominican Republic .
President Bush recently identified CAFTA-DR as one of his top legislative priorities. He has linked its passage to national security interests. "CAFTA is more than just a trade agreement," he said on June 6. "It is a signal of the U.S. commitment to democracy and prosperity for our neighbors."
For anybody who remembers the 1980s--a time when our hemisphere was "divided by resentment and false ideologies," as Bush put it--the stability of Central America is nothing to take for granted. The United States must do everything it can to promote freedom in these fledgling democracies. Trade is an excellent way of doing that.
The enemies of CAFTA-DR don't talk about this key point, perhaps because it's so obvious and so indisputable. Instead, they concentrate on the question of labor rights--and their concerns deserve a careful response.
...
Glad you can take responsiblity there Jum.
Oh, I look a little closer now at the screen and see you're a GIRL.
No wonder logic and differential invectives had such strange effects ...
Heh. That's what I thought about you too. But I'm diverse and sensitive enough not to say it in public.
The New Anti-GlobalistsArticleBy William Finnegan
Exploring the psychology of Seattle, Washington and beyond.Beck was a sophomore at Berkeley, taking a class in international rural development. The daughter of an orthopedic surgeon, she had gone to college planning to do premed, but environmental science caught her interest ...
Beck was a brilliant student"One of these new Renaissance people, so smart they could be almost anything," a former professor of hers recalls. She was intellectually insatiable, and her eagerness to understand the dynamics of economic development propelled her into several academic fields, notably the dry, dizzying politics of international finance and trade.
...
Beck had found her strange grand passion--international trade rules--at an auspicious time. Besides the popularity of her class, there were the events last November in Seattle, where fifty thousand demonstrators shut down a major meeting of the World Trade Organization. Beck, who is twenty-seven, was a key organizer of the Seattle protests.
"The Spirit of Seattle," she says, crinkling her eyes and grinning blissfully. "Your body just tingled with hope, to be around so many people so committed to making a better world." Beck says things like "tingled with hope" and "making a better world" with no hint of self-consciousness ...
www.thotline.com
Let the congressmen know what you're thinking.
Steve
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.