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North American Union Would Trump U.S. Supreme Court
Human Events Online ^ | Jun 19, 2006 | Jerome R. Corsi

Posted on 06/19/2006 7:37:30 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer

The Bush Administration is pushing to create a North American Union out of the work on-going in the Department of Commerce under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America in the NAFTA office headed by Geri Word. A key part of the plan is to expand the NAFTA tribunals into a North American Union court system that would have supremacy over all U.S. law, even over the U.S. Supreme Court, in any matter related to the trilateral political and economic integration of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Right now, Chapter 11 of the NAFTA agreement allows a private NAFTA foreign investor to sue the U.S. government if the investor believes a state or federal law damages the investor’s NAFTA business.

Under Chapter 11, NAFTA establishes a tribunal that conducts a behind closed-doors “trial” to decide the case according to the legal principals established by either the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes or the UN’s Commission for International Trade Law. If the decision is adverse to the U.S., the NAFTA tribunal can impose its decision as final, trumping U.S. law, even as decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. laws can be effectively overturned and the NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunal can impose millions or billions of dollars in fines on the U.S. government, to be paid ultimately by the U.S. taxpayer.

On Aug. 9, 2005, a three-member NAFTA tribunal dismissed a $970 million claim filed by Methanex Corp., a Canadian methanol producer challenging California laws that regulate against the gasoline additive MTBE. The additive MTBE was introduced into gasoline to reduce air pollution from motor vehicle emissions. California regulations restricted the use of MTBE after the additive was found to contaminate drinking water and produce a health hazard. Had the case been decided differently, California’s MTBE regulations would have been overturned and U.S. taxpayers forced to pay Methanex millions in damages.

While this case was decided favorably to U.S. laws, we can rest assured that sooner or later a U.S. law will be overruled by the NAFTA Chapter 11 adjudicative procedure, as long as the determinant law adjudicated by the NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunals continues to derive from World Court or UN law. Once a North American Union court structure is in place can almost certainly predict that a 2nd Amendment challenge to the right to bear arms is as inevitable under a North American Union court structure as is a challenge to our 1st Amendment free speech laws. Citizens of both Canada and Mexico cannot freely own firearms. Nor can Canadians or Mexicans speak out freely without worrying about “hate crimes” legislation or other political restrictions on what they may choose to say.

Like it or not, NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunals already empower foreign NAFTA investors and corporations to challenge the sovereignty of U.S. law in the United States. Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) has been quoted as saying, “When we debated NAFTA, not a single word was uttered in discussing Chapter 11. Why? Because we didn’t know how this provision would play out. No one really knew just how high the stakes would get.” Again, we have abundant proof that Congress is unbelievably lax when it comes to something as fundamental as reading or understanding the complex laws our elected legislators typically pass.

Under the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) plan expressed in May 2005 for building NAFTA into a North American Union, the stakes are about to get even higher. A task force report titled “Building a North American Community” was written to provide a blueprint for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America agreement signed by President Bush in his meeting with President Fox and Canada’s then-Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Tex., on March 23, 2005.

The CFR plan clearly calls for the establishment of a “permanent tribunal for North American dispute resolution” as part of the new regional North American Union (NAU) governmental structure that is proposed to go into place in 2010. As the CFR report details on page 22:

The current NAFTA dispute-resolution process is founded on ad hoc panels that are not capable of building institutional memory or establishing precedent, may be subject to conflicts of interest, and are appointed by authorities who may have an incentive to delay a given proceeding. As demonstrated by the efficiency of the World Trade Organization (WTO) appeal process, a permanent tribunal would likely encourage faster, more consistent and more predictable resolution of disputes. In addition, there is a need to review the workings of NAFTA’s dispute-settlement mechanism to make it more efficient, transparent, and effective.

Robert Pastor of American University, the vice chairman of the CFR task force report, provided much of the intellectual justification for the formation of the North American Union. He has repeatedly argued for the creation of a North American Union “Permanent Tribunal on Trade and Investment.” Pastor understands that a “permanent court would permit the accumulation of precedent and lay the groundwork for North American business law.” Notice, Pastor says nothing about U.S. business law or the U.S. Supreme Court. In the view of the globalists pushing toward the formation of the North American Union, the U.S. is a partisan nation-state whose limitations of economic protectionism and provincial self-interest are outdated and as such must be transcended, even if the price involves sacrificing U.S. national sovereignty.

When it comes to the question of illegal immigrants, Pastor’s solution is to erase our borders with Mexico and Canada so we can issue North American Union passports to all citizens. In his testimony to the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 9, 2005, Pastor made this exact argument: “Instead of stopping North Americans on the borders, we ought to provide them with a secure, biometric Border Pass that would ease transit across the border like an E-Z pass permits our cars to speed though toll booths.”

Even Pastor worries about the potential for North American Unions to overturn U.S. laws that he likes. Regarding environmental laws, Pastor’s testimony to the Trilateral Commission in November 2002 was clear on this point: “Some narrowing or clarification of the scope of Chapter 11 panels on foreign investment is also needed to permit the erosion of environmental rules.” Evidently it did not occur to Pastor that the way to achieve the protection he sought was to leave the sovereignty of U.S. and the supremacy of the U.S. Supreme Court intact.

The executive branch under the Bush Administration is quietly putting in place a behind-the-scenes trilateral regulatory scheme, evidently without any direct congressional input, that should provide the rules by which any NAFTA or NAU court would examine when adjudicating NAU trade disputes. The June 2005 report by the SPP working groups organized in the U.S. Department of Commerce, clearly states the goal:

We will develop a trilateral Regulatory Cooperative Framework by 2007 to support and enhance existing, as well as encourage new cooperation among regulators, including at the outset of the regulatory process.

We wonder if the Bush Administration intends to present the Trilateral Regulatory Cooperative Framework now being constructed by SPP.gov to Congress for review in 2007, or will the administration simply continue along the path of knitting together the new NAU regional governmental structure behind closed doors by executive fiat? Ms. Word affirms that the membership of the various SPP working group committees has not been published. Nor have the many memorandums of understanding and other trilateral agreements created by these SPP working groups been published, not even on the Internet.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; UFO's
KEYWORDS: absolutelynuts; ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh; almonds; beyondstupid; cashews; chestnuts; comingtotakeusaway; corsi; cuespookymusic; filberts; frislaughingatnuts; globalism; globalistsundermybed; idiotalert; keepemcomingcorsi; morethorazineplease; nafta; namericanunion; nau; northamericanunion; nuts; paranoia; peanuts; pecans; preciousbodilyfluids; prosperity; sapandimpurify; specialkindofstupid; theboogeyman; walnuts
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Nor have the many memorandums of understanding and other trilateral agreements created by these SPP working groups been published, not even on the Internet.

Especially NOT on the internet.
1 posted on 06/19/2006 7:37:33 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer
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To: calcowgirl; nicmarlo; texastoo; William Terrell; Tolerance Sucks Rocks; cinives; Czar; ...

More NAU bad news.


2 posted on 06/19/2006 7:39:24 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer ("I'm a millionaire thanks to the WTO and "free trade" system--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: hedgetrimmer

100 million armed Americans trumps North American Union.


3 posted on 06/19/2006 7:42:29 AM PDT by A message
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To: hedgetrimmer

The Bush legacy, GLOBALISM GONE WILD!


4 posted on 06/19/2006 7:43:05 AM PDT by Reagan Man (Secure the borders; enforce employer sanctions; stop welfare handouts to illegals)
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To: A message
From the article:

Once a North American Union court structure is in place can almost certainly predict that a 2nd Amendment challenge to the right to bear arms is as inevitable under a North American Union court structure as is a challenge to our 1st Amendment free speech laws. Citizens of both Canada and Mexico cannot freely own firearms. Nor can Canadians or Mexicans speak out freely without worrying about “hate crimes” legislation or other political restrictions on what they may choose to say.
5 posted on 06/19/2006 7:44:24 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer ("I'm a millionaire thanks to the WTO and "free trade" system--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: hedgetrimmer

Bookmark bump


6 posted on 06/19/2006 7:45:26 AM PDT by tertiary01 (Soviet style debating tactics invented tinfoiling the opposition.)
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To: hedgetrimmer

These reads alot like an article I read online published by "The Nation" that lamented the fact that New Deal was toast due to Chapter 11.

If anyone wants to read it, google "reapealing the twenthiest century" and you should find it.

I found it a fascinating read, even if written in a left wing moonbat publication.


7 posted on 06/19/2006 7:46:03 AM PDT by NeoCaveman (Visit early, vistit often, Save our state! http://blackwellvstrickland.blogspot.com)
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To: hedgetrimmer

In other words, the lack of documentary proof of this secret order is proof of it?


8 posted on 06/19/2006 7:47:02 AM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: hedgetrimmer
Things like this used to be the talk of conspiracy theorists and fridge groups, but it seems there is some definite truth to all of this, and it's very disturbing.
9 posted on 06/19/2006 7:48:43 AM PDT by KoRn
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To: Mr. Lucky
In other words, the lack of documentary proof of this secret order is proof of it?

Shhhh....the OAS is listening.

10 posted on 06/19/2006 7:48:44 AM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Why are protectionists so bad at math?)
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To: Reagan Man
Somehow, I believe that there is a lot more to this story that is not being told.

President Bush would never sell this country out. Don't even think about mentioning immigration.
11 posted on 06/19/2006 7:49:38 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek ("Over there, over there, We won't be back 'til it's over Over there.")
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To: hedgetrimmer
I am a citizen of the US and I will not stand for this!
12 posted on 06/19/2006 7:49:53 AM PDT by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways Guero » with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona....)
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To: Mr. Lucky
In other words, the lack of documentary proof of this secret order is proof of it?

The lack of sunshine laws with respect to bureaus set up by executive fiat is the problem.
13 posted on 06/19/2006 7:50:31 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer ("I'm a millionaire thanks to the WTO and "free trade" system--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: hedgetrimmer

Explain to me how the Supreme Court is kept out when it decides it has jurisdiction. It's pretty much established law that the US government can't void Constitutional protections/ provisions by treaty.

More than one treaty has had provisions clipped by a court.


14 posted on 06/19/2006 7:50:43 AM PDT by Comstock1 (If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle.)
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To: mariabush

"President Bush would never sell this country out."

He already has.


15 posted on 06/19/2006 7:50:46 AM PDT by Bikers4Bush (Flood waters rising, heading for more conservative ground. Vote for true conservatives!)
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To: Bikers4Bush

No he hasn't!!!!


16 posted on 06/19/2006 7:51:33 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek ("Over there, over there, We won't be back 'til it's over Over there.")
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To: tertiary01
The detailed nature of this program indicates the big effort made by the advocates of globalization to favor the emergence of a North American unified geo-economic bloc. As the promoters of this policy state: “The establishment by 2010 of a security and economic community for North America is an ambitious but achievable goal”. The ongoing process should also be analyzed in relation with other emerging continental blocs, in particular with the European Union. The latter continues with its efforts to dismantle the nation-states in spite of the “No” to the referendum by France and the Netherlands. Faced by the resistance of some peoples, this world philosophy will increasingly put into practice methods to restrict individual liberties and to encourage an education system that, like a pedagogical Machiavelli, formats the minds according to its image. This dictatorship, highlighted by a technology that will continue to improve, will hound those who really oppose the system. Unfortunately, few people are already aware of that.

Building a North American Community
--Pierre Hillard
17 posted on 06/19/2006 7:52:16 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer ("I'm a millionaire thanks to the WTO and "free trade" system--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: mariabush

He absolutely has and all the exclamation points in the world won't change that.


18 posted on 06/19/2006 7:53:24 AM PDT by Bikers4Bush (Flood waters rising, heading for more conservative ground. Vote for true conservatives!)
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To: A message
100 million armed Americans trumps North American Union.

Only if they feel strongly enough to use them on police, soldiers and politicians who will be enforcing NAU.
19 posted on 06/19/2006 7:57:10 AM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (Give Them Liberty Or Give Them Death! - IT'S ISLAM, STUPID! - Islam Delenda Est! - Rumble thee forth)
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To: Bikers4Bush

"Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America"


Sounds like something straight out of Orwell.


20 posted on 06/19/2006 7:57:30 AM PDT by BenLurkin ("The entire remedy is with the people." - W. H. Harrison)
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