NAFTA / GATT |
As is obvious, we're pulling reports and information from our archives to hopefully provide information to those of you who are becoming informed and have "catching-up" to do.
The following article was featured as a 4 page special pullout section of the November 1994 issue of the Council on Domestic Relations' National Newsletter. It explains the origin and mechanics of the diabolical plan to cripple America by eliminating her industrial base; exporting businesses and jobs to 'developing nations'; and literally destroying the economic and social structure of our nation… state by state by state. Extensive quotes from the U.N. Declaration on the Implementation of a New Economic Order.
The WORLD According to G.A.T.T.*
*General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade
Researched and compiled by Jackie Patru
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GATT?
According to the World Book Encyclopedia — 1972…
"The GATT is "an international agreement to reduce trade barriers among member countries. The GATT is really a code of conduct to which members [nations] called contracting parties, subscribe. Since the first nations signed the agreement in 1947, it has become the chief international agreement on world trade. The GATT deals with a wide range of commercial policies. Contracting parties meet from time to time to negotiate the removal of barriers to international trade. The parties also review complaints of GATT rules violations.
"These meetings have reduced tariffs and other trade obstacles on thousands of products. GATT rules specify that a party granting a trade advantage to one country must grant the same advantage to all contracting parties. The rules also limit the use of import quotas and other restrictions to the flow of goods among GATT nations. The GATT also grants special privileges to 'developing nations' without requiring these nations to obey all GATT rules.
"By the early '70's, about 80 countries had signed GATT agreements. Several other countries had applied for membership or participated in the agreement in some manner. Contracting parties hold business sessions at least once a year. Most decisions are made by a simple majority vote. Each country has one vote. A council of representatives elected by GATT members deals with urgent work between sessions.
"The GATT secretariat consists of international trade specialists and an administrative staff. Tariff conferences and sessions are usually held at GATT headquarters [in secret?] in Geneva, Switzerland."
[Note: We're told the GATT agreement as of today [11-94] consists of 36,000 pages. Does anyone in this world know what's in it? …even the International World Socialist bureaucrats in the U.N. and their think tank theoreticians who've supervised the writing of the "agreement"?]
United Nations Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order — 1974
Following are excerpts from the UN declaration adopted at its 2229th plenary meeting - 1 May 1974. This picks up where World Book leaves off, giving us a clear understanding of why we have experienced the decline in job availability, wages and the standard of living in America and other developed [their word] countries in the past 20 years. All emphasis is ours. The implementation of this declaration accelerated the destruction of middle classes around the globe. GATT will finish us off. Please read this section carefully.
"We, the Members of the United Nations, [including America] Having convened a special session of the General Assembly to study for the first time the problems of raw materials and development,
Devoted to the considerations of the most important economic problems facing the world community,
Bearing in mind the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations to promote the economic advancement and social progress of all peoples,
Solemnly proclaim our united determination to work urgently for THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER based on equity, sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest and cooperation among all States, irrespective of their [our] economic and social systems which shall correct inequalities and redress existing injustices, make it possible to eliminate the widening gap between the developed [America] and the developing countries and ensure steadily accelerating economic and social development and peace and justice for present and future generations, and, to that end, declare:..."
"1. The greatest and most significant achievement during the last decades has been the independence from alien domination of a large number of peoples and nations which has enabled them to become members of the community of free peoples...."
"Free peoples"? In 1974 the iron curtain was up; the Berlin wall was up; Red China had killed, enslaved or imprisoned millions; and Russia, which citizens were already enslaved and imprisoned, was interjecting forced Communism into the lives and governments of free peoples at every opportunity. Today, they've changed the word Communism to Democracy, and the beat goes on... in South Africa, Haiti, where ever in hell they decide to create their hell on earth.
"2. The present international economic order is in direct conflict with current developments in international political and economic relations. Since 1970 the world economy has experienced a series of grave crises which have had severe repercussions, especially on the developing countries....
"These irreversible changes in the relationship of forces in the world necessitate the active, full and equal participation of the developing countries… of all decisions that concern the international community."
"3. All these changes have thrust into prominence the reality of interdependence of all the members of the world community. Current events have brought into sharp focus the realization that the interests of [America / Americans]the developed countries and those of the developing countries can no longer be isolated from each other, that there is a close interrelationship between the prosperity of the developed countries and the growth and development of the developing countries, and that the prosperity of the international community as a whole depends upon the prosperity of its constituent parts.
"International co-operation for development is the shared goal and common duty of all countries…"
Fact: Since the implementation 20 years ago of the U.N.'s New International Economic Order (NIEO) -- according to billionaire Member of the European Parliament, Sir James Goldsmith -- unemployment in Europe has risen from 430,000 to 5.1 million, equal to 25 million in America. (The NIEO was brought to us/Americans by Ronald Reagan and apparently approved of by Phyllis Shlafly/Eagle Forum by virtue of her silence.)
The American middle class is disappearing. The developing nations (people) who were supposed to be 'saved' with our tax dollars are worse off today; and the working people in America and all developed countries have become the unwitting slaves to the policy makers of the New World Order.
This current GATT-WTO agreement [World Trade Organization] is meant to "equalize" the living standards of all peoples in the world, and we can all see in which direction the trend is leading… the rich get rich and the poor get poorer.
According to Senator Ernest Hollings (D-South Carolina) in the Congressional Record 10-7-94 pp S14745-47
"As President Clinton himself has said, 'most people's wages aren't going up because they're set in a competitive global economy.' That's couching it in soft terms. Most working Americans have seen their wages decline by about 20% in real terms over the past 20 years. Worst of all, the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is the widest documented since the Census Bureau started keeping these statistics following WWII.
"During the 80's, the incomes of the richest 1% of Americans grew 68%, while the bottom 60 percent of families experienced a decline in income. These are the devastating effects of deindustrialization".
To put Senator Hollings' percentages in numbers, about 250,000 people in America are getting richer while 150,000,000 — the entire working middle class — are getting poorer.
Today in the U.S. of A., the majority of the rich fall into only a few categories…
International bankers;
CEO's and high executives of the trans-national corporations — who are the perpetrators of the GATT;
Professional athletes, because they are being used to keep the masses entertained and apathetic (consider the futuristic movies that portray World Government — world games are the focus of the masses);
Entertainers, for the same reason as athletes; and
Let us not forget UN/US elected and appointed officials who are the implementers of the destruction of freedom and prosperity throughout the world.
U.S. — including state and local — elected officials should remember history. After the revolution in Russia, those who betrayed their country, for the most part, were sent down the proverbial memory hole by those they served. Evidently it's understood that once a traitor always a traitor.
As Sir Goldsmith told U.S. Senators during committee hearings on the GATT-WTO:
"With the GATT, America will go from a trot — under the NAFTA — to a headlong gallop into total economic and social destruction."
Continuing with excerpts from the U.N.'s Declaration:
"4. The new international economic order should be founded on full respect for the following principles: (a) Sovereign equality of States, inadmissibility of the acquisition of territories by force, and non interference in the internal affairs of other states."
Question: What has the U.N./U.S. Government been doing in Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, etc? Maybe the Globalists really mean…"as long as all States obey the directives of the Global Government and all peoples of the world become good little global citizens, we will practice non-interference".
"...(b) The broadest co-operation of all the States members of the international community, based on equity, whereby the prevailing disparities in the world may be banished and prosperity secured for all."
Remember the Communist maxim: "From those according to their ability, to those according to their need"? Who prospers?
"5. The unanimous adoption of the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade - Resolution 2626 - was an important step in the promotion of international economic co-operation on a just and equitable basis. The accelerated implementation of obligations and commitments assumed by the International community within the framework of the Strategy, particularly those concerning imperative development needs of developing countries, would contribute significantly to the fulfillment of the aims and objectives of the present Declaration."
Question: Could any U.S. Congressman or Senator vote for this GATT without making a conscious decision to deal the final death stroke to America?
The following excerpts are from the:
Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order - U.N. 3202 (S.VI).
"…3. General Trade - All efforts should be made: (a) To …eliminate chronic trade deficits of developing countries: (ii) Improved access to markets in developed countries through the progressive removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers; …(b) To be guided by the principles of non-reciprocity and preferential treatment of developing countries in multilateral trade negotiations between developed and developing countries …and acceleration of the rate of their economic growth."
Question: Who benefits from all of this preferential treatment? The people in developing countries who are working for slave's wages? People in developed countries, i.e. America? Or is it the multi-national corporations' profit margins and the International banksters' increased stranglehold on the world's six billion people? As an example, Sir Goldsmith pointed out that when Nike moved to Asia the company's labor costs dropped by millions of dollars; the millions were not reflected in a lower priced shoe -- not even by a penny. The millions of dollars went into the profit margins of Nike while many Americans lost jobs.
Regarding financing of the development of developing countries...
"All efforts should be made to reform the international monetary system with …the following objectives:
"(h) promote an increasing net transfer of real resources from [America] the developed to the developing countries;…
"IV (a) To formulate an international code of conduct for the transfer of technology [from America] corresponding to needs and conditions prevalent in developing countries…
"(e).... Preferential treatment should be given to imports and the exports of those [developing] countries;…
"2. Developed countries [America/Americans] should support …developing countries through the extension of financial and technical assistance.
"IX. Strengthening The Role of the U.N. System in the Field of International Economic Co-operation
…all member States [including America] pledge to make full use of the UN system in the implementation of the present "Programme of Action", …in working for the Establishment of a New International Economic Order and thereby strengthening the role of the UN in the field of world-wide cooperation for economic and social development.
"The General Assembly adopts the following Special Programme.
"(a)...to resolve these outstanding problems through a fundamental restructuring of the world economic system, in order to allow these countries… to reach an acceptable level of development.
"(e)…all the developed countries [America]… should be contributing according to their level of development and the capacity and strength of their economies.
"(f) … Their assistance …should fulfill and if possible exceed the targets of the International Development Strategy..."
Bear in mind, all the financial help being demanded from America and other developed countries will come from the blood, sweat and tears of all working people. Third world -- developing nations -- are stripped of their natural resources via debt-for-equity loans from the I.M.F which we fund and the have-nots of the world are chained to our backs.
WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) 1994
Changes to or expansion of the original terms of GATT are made through "Rounds" of negotiations. Generally a Round takes 3 to 4 years. There have been 7 Rounds to date. The Rounds are named for the location at which negotiations were begun. The present rules of GATT were negotiated through the Tokyo Round in which GATT was first expanded to include non-tariff barriers. This last, the Uruguay Round, took 8 years and will create the World Trade Organization, another cell of the United Nations.
The WTO has the power to challenge and negate any American law, or any other member nation's law, that it claims interferes with trade; this applies at the local, state and federal levels… regardless what rules are added in the U.S. implementing legislation.
STATES' SOVEREIGNTY - AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY UNDER G.A.T.T.
According to Senator Hollings in the Congressional Record 10-7-94:
"[Trade] Ambassador [Mickey] Kantor claims our sovereignty is protected because Section 102 of the implementing bill provides that 'No provision of the Uruguay round nor the application of it that is inconsistent with any law of the U.S. shall have effect'. That is just talk. The dispute resolution panels under the WTO meeting in secrecy in Geneva, will not care one hoot about what section 102 of our implementing bill says.
"A panel can declare our Federal, State and local laws inconsistent with the rules of GATT, and -- unlike the current GATT regime -- there will be two powerful incentives for the U.S. to change our laws.
"First, we'll no longer be able to block a panel decision because under the new rules there must be consensus… and there will be strong political pressure to fall in line with whatever the WTO says.
"Second, the new rules authorize cross-retaliation, so for example if another country brings a successful challenge against a U.S. environmental regulation, that country can retaliate against U.S. intellectual property. We all know the result would be a massive lobbying effort by the U.S. intellectual property industries to lobby Congress to weaken environmental laws.
"The pressure to change our laws are great under the current rules despite our current ability to block panel reports and the current unavailability of cross-retaliation. I'm well aware there were voices within the current administration arguing that the U.S. should amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act to conform to the two GATT panel decisions finding it 'GATT-illegal'.
"Ambassador Kantor points out that the first sentence of article IX of the WTO rules says the WTO will operate by consensus. He needs to read a little further, because the second sentence says that, 'where a decision cannot be arrived at by consensus, the matter shall be decided by voting'.
"Here is where I have tremendous concern over the procedures of the WTO. It will be a commercial U.N. with each of the 117 nations having one vote. The U.S. will have the same voting power [no veto power] as Cuba, Sri Lanka or Macau. Castro's vote cancels ours. Over half of these 117 nations have voted against us 75% of the time in the U.N."
CAN WE TRUST OUR GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT AMERICA'S INTERESTS UNDER THE NEWLY CREATED WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION?
Apparently the answer to the above questions is a resounding "NO". According to Congresswoman Helen Bentley (R-Maryland), in her remarks to the U.S. House regarding the question of America's interests under GATT-WTO, the U.S. Government and its agents, attorneys and agencies have defended foreign corporations against U.S. industry time and time again. Her revelations were astonishing and frightening:
"Mr. Chairman, we'll be asked to vote on the passage of GATT... likely in this session. The central feature, signally the major difference between the 'old' GATT and the 'new' GATT, will be the World Trade Organization, the enforcement arm of the new GATT.
"The basic structure of the WTO is much the same as the bi-national panels, now operating in the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. There, decisions are made on the validity of U.S. law... law already upheld by the trade courts of the U.S. However, [under the GATT-WTO] if the panel votes against the U.S. law, there is no appeal from the decision and U.S. law -- while not physically changed -- CANNOT be enforced by the U.S. government.
"The GATT will expand this power to render U.S. law impotent to 117 nations exporting into our markets, and the only representation to the WTO will be by the U.S. Trade Representative on appeals from industries which he chooses. This is a tremendous shift of power from the Congress to the Executive, from U.S. Courts to international panels meeting in secret.
"If we are being reassured that the Executive Branch will protect Congress' and the peoples' interests in the New World Order before the World Trade Court, then I think we should examine how past Presidents have viewed their charge to uphold U.S. international trade law.
"For at least 15 years, Executive Branch lawyers have lobbied for policy changes benefiting foreign interests, even appearing in Court for foreign positions on trade law against U.S. Producers.
"The most recent extraordinary behavior occurred at the Treasury Department in the challenge to California's Unitary tax law. Foreign lobbyists triggered the suit against California by having Treasury issue policy changes and thereby, ultimate charges against the state. Treasury then appeared on behalf of the foreign plaintiffs. Had California lost it would have cost the state billions in tax rebates.
"If this shook the states up -- the U.S. government as an adversary on behalf of foreign nations -- U.S. Corporations have been experiencing this right along.
"In anti-trust actions against the Japanese TV industry, representatives of the American industry struggled over 15 years in the courts. The U.S. Justice Department's Anti-trust division and the State Department appeared on behalf of the Japanese, against the U.S. plaintiffs before the Supreme Court in 1987.
"In 1992, the Commerce Department representing themselves as defendants in an anti dumping case, used Fujitsu, Mitsubishi and NEC's support against a U.S. plaintiff.
"The record is replete with U.S. government attorneys appearing in trade cases filed by U.S. companies, using U.S. taxpayers' money to argue in favor of foreign interests.
"If there has been such activism from the Agencies to confound the upholding of U.S. trade law before the 'new' GATT -- Treasury, State, Commerce, and Justice -- then what may we expect after GATT passes when the Courts will have no power to stop their attack on the body of domestic law as we saw occur when California won on the Unitary Tax?"
Note: After this damning evidence against the GATT-WTO, Congresswoman Bentley lost her bid for re-election.
THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE
Sir James Goldsmith, in recent U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearings pleaded with the members of the committee to "think long and hard" about the GATT, urging them to not rush into a vote this year. According to the rules of the Uruguay Round, they don't have to vote until June, '95. Sir James urged the U.S. Senators, saying:
"Think again… one thing I pray you do. This is the single most important economic act the Western world has ever taken… it will change the life of every American."
Sir James went on to explain to the U.S. Senators that the job of the U.S. Congress is to establish an economic environment in America that creates employment, stability, prosperity and contentment. He said that the sad part of it all is that it is expected to go through without a debate and with the majority of the American people not even knowing what it is about.
According to Sir James, the alternative to GATT, if the World Policy Makers really want to help the developing countries, they could keep open the free flow of technology and money to those other countries. Any corporation wanting to do business in a foreign country could simply become a part of that country's community… producing and selling the goods within its borders.
Conceivably, any corporation could set up businesses in as many countries as they wish, but in order to export into America or other developed countries, they would simply be forced to pay high enough tariffs to discourage exporting and thereby save jobs for the peoples in the developed countries.
Then, of course, in order for the people in those developing countries to become "customers" of the corporation, they must be paid wages high enough to have the purchasing power. This plan would truly raise the living standards of the people in third-world countries. It would force the businesses to pay more than 25 cents an hour for its workers and it will stop the escalating destruction of America.
Sir James suggested we throw out all of this flawed "economic theory" and talk in hard, cold, straight forward, common-sensible terms. Setting a scenario, he asked the U.S. Senators:
"If you were a business owner or CEO and your primary job is to create profits; if you could set up business anywhere in the world you wanted and could sell your products anywhere you wanted, at whatever price you wanted, without tariffs; if you could go to Indonesia and hire 47 Indonesians at the cost of hiring one American, sell your products back to Americans without lowering your prices [as Nike did] where would you go?"
Under this new GATT we're bringing into our market 4 billion people who are looking for jobs and will work for a mere fraction of the wages at which Americans can afford to work. These people had previously been isolated from the world market because of Communism or Socialism and will totally change the face of our world.
Sir James says this isn't about consumerism, it's about jobs and it will cost millions of jobs to Americans.
Using dollar amounts to judge trade balances is also flawed, as he points out that America could export $10 billion in technological goods which represent only 1,000 jobs for Americans; import $10 billion in manufactured goods from another country which produced tens of thousands of jobs for the workers who produced the goods and call it "balanced trade". And all the profits continue to go to the trans-national companies, not into the economy of that producing country nor to the people working at meager wages.
TRADE AMBASSADOR MICKEY KANTOR LIES
In the same hearings referred to above, Mickey Kantor said that America's economic future depends on our ability to compete in a Global Economy. He also said the playing field in world trade has been made unlevel for American industry and the G.A.T.T. creates a level playing field. Kantor's rhetoric truly is a fine example of the Dialectic: The "unlevel" playing field was created in previous trade agreements providing justification for the "new" agreement. However, for decades the playing field has been slanted in favor of foreign industry, so the whole scheme is a blatant lie.
Kantor also said the American people will realize a $36 billion decrease in taxes. When asked specifically if he was saying there would be a $36 billion decrease in income taxes he responded, "Well, no… not exactly. This figure is projected from the expected decrease in the cost of goods coming from other countries".
Kantor insisted that we [America] could set any environmental and health standards we want, but he didn't explain other countries could cross retaliate. He placed an inordinate emphasis on the protection of intellectual property, using as an example the billions of dollars a CD by Whitney Houston brought in from abroad, and the loss of revenues when these types of properties are "pirated".
Loss of revenues to whom? Who gets the billions of dollars from a Whitney Houston CD? American workers? Not many we would guess. Again, the profits go to the rich.
Even if Kantor were an honest, up-front individual, it is frightening to consider that any one man -- an appointed bureaucrat at that -- is responsible for a World Trade Agreement that will effect the lives of every single American. As an appointed bureaucrat he isn't answerable to the electorate, but only to -- outwardly -- President Bill Clinton. In reality Clinton is merely a talking head for the International gang which pulls his strings.
The following article from The Milwaukee Journal, 7-13-94, pg A5, says it all regarding the alleged benefit for America under the GATT-WTO. The headline reads:
"U.S. TAXPAYER ID NUMBER PROPOSED" Washington, D.C.
"The White House proposes to meet the costs of a global trade liberalization agreement by, among other things, issuing a 'cradle-to-grave' taxpayer identification number designed to guarantee that Americans pay taxes on investments. White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor informed Republican congressional leaders of their proposal Tuesday, congressional sources said.
"The Uruguay Round of the GATT, signed earlier this year, requires countries to reduce their tariffs on imported goods. For the U.S., that is estimated to reduce tariff revenue by about $12 billion over five years. Under budget rules that loss must be offset by federal spending reductions or by tax increases. As described by congressional sources, the plan the administration presented Tuesday depends primarily on tax enforcement actions, a speedup in a number of tax collection provisions and increases in fees.
The ID number, which would be issued to newborns, is projected to generate about $340 million over five years".
Question: Where will they get the other $11.66 billion?… perhaps another increase in our taxes? And Kantor said we'd realize a tax decrease? You be the judge.
PS: As you know, GATT passed since this article was published. We've seen the devastating effects of NAFTA and are horrified of the current talk of expanding it to include Carribean, Central and South American countries. Ultimately, we will face a choice of either accepting the total economic destruction of our country or demanding that the unConstitutional GATT and NAFTA be repealed.
Since the U.S. Congress has long ago been bought-and-paid-for by Israel and other interest groups [According to an Israeli Knessett member, from an article in the Harretz, the U.S. Congress is "Israeli occupied territory"], we must take the battle to the states. Contact and meet with your State Legislator; begin the education process using documented evidence to bring the point home… that the country, the lives they are destroying are their own.
P.P.S. Sir James Goldsmith died suddenly not long after he testified so powerfully, although uselessly, to the U.S. Senate against the GATT-WTO.