I am with you to "trimmer", selling out our homeland via a back handed deal is very ugly to say the least. Glad your on our side. That short Texan warned us, I at least voted for him. DR-Cafta seems to be sinking inspite of our president and Billy Bob Clinton's lobbying efforts.
CAFTA Built on Rotten Foundation of Kangaroo Courts
Sierra Times... ^ | July 14, 2005
U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA) today called on fellow House Members to closely examine the system of settling all trade and immigration disputes under CAFTA, as a violation of American legal principles and a kangaroo court system stacked against the United States. In the event that Central American governments' understanding of CAFTA immigration provisions are different than what the Bush Administration is now telling Congress, it would be an international tribunal set up under CAFTA and staffed by a panel of three "judges" that would settle the dispute. CAFTA rules under Article 20.9 dictate that the tribunal consists of two Central Americans pitted against a single U.S. judge in all cases involving the United States.
CAFTA’s international tribunal would use international, not U.S. law, to judge whether existing federal, state or local U.S. policies had to be changed to conform with CAFTA’s 1000 pages of non-trade policy requirements. Failure to meet the CAFTA tribunal dictates would subject the U.S. to indefinite trade sanctions until the offending U.S. laws were overturned, under CAFTA Article 20.16.
Under the CAFTA international tribunal and law system, American citizens lose their due process right of appeal to the U.S. justice system, virtually eliminating American legal sovereignty over issues covered by the agreement.
Other CAFTA provisions seem designed to actually trigger later challenges before CAFTA tribunals. For instance, CAFTA creates a new “right” for services to be provided by "a national of a party in the Territory of another party" (CAFTA Article 11.14(c)) yet is silent on what visas would be used to allow such temporary entry - begging a challenge of any future U.S. denial of entry to workers from the CAFTA countries.
Norwood says the packed tribunals are the defining feature of CAFTA, loaded with conflicting language, the meaning of which CAFTA tribunals alone would be empowered to decide. "In some places, certain CAFTA provisions appear to safeguard American interests, but then a few paragraphs later a clause is included that directly conflicts and overturns what seem like safeguards,” says Norwood. "And then these kangaroo courts stacked against America determine which interpretation prevails, with no right of appeal. With this system of dispute resolution as the foundation of CAFTA, no amount of protections will ever be adequate to prevent Americans from being run over by unfair trade policies and open borders immigration."
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"CAFTA’s international tribunal would use international, not U.S. law, to judge whether existing federal, state or local U.S. policies had to be changed to conform with CAFTA’s 1000 pages of non-trade policy requirements. Failure to meet the CAFTA tribunal dictates would subject the U.S. to indefinite trade sanctions until the offending U.S. laws were overturned, under CAFTA Article 20.16."