"The Constitution clearly grants Congress alone the authority to regulate international trade." "Neither Congress nor the President can give this authority away by treaty, any more than they can repeal the First Amendment by treaty." -Ron Paul...
The plain text of Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 is incontrovertible...
"The Congress shall have Power To... regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes..."
CAFTA (along with the other so called "free" trade agreements) has clearly given that power over to the World Trade Organization... A bunch of foreign and unelected bureaucrats are now illegally controlling/regulating US trade. Yes... I have a major problem with that...
And again... Most all of the support for CAFTA on the floor last night centered on the belief that CAFTA was badly needed to help these Central American Countries... The debate was overwhelmingly about the benfit of CAFTA for THEM... not US. Not too complicated IMHO.
Did Congress not just vote to ratify the agreement...How was Congress left out of the process? Good lord, this is law school 101 (or civics 101 for that matter).