SACRIFICING AMERICA FOR GLOBAL TRADE
SACRIFICING AMERICA FOR GLOBAL TRADE
By Roxane Premont
July 8, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
The White House is promoting so-called Free Trade Areas (FTAs) across the globe - in Asia, in Africa, and in our own hemisphere. The trade area the administration is pushing now is the Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA). The President's stated goal is to knit together all the nations of the Middle East under one regional authority by 2013. He intends to do this by first creating bilateral treaties, one nation at a time, with the U.S. Each one is called an "agreement" rather than a treaty in an effort to bypass the Constitutional requirement for a supermajority 2/3 vote in the U.S. Senate. On June 26th, the White House placed legislation before the U.S. Senate to approve a deal with a fifth Middle Eastern nation, the absolute monarchy of Oman. The administration calls it "countering terror with trade." Instead, it is marketing terror to profit multinational corporations, with no discernible benefits to Americans, Omanis, or what remains of NC and SC textile manufacturing.
The White House claims that the Sultan of Oman is our friend. That same claim was once made for the House of Saud, whose oil wealth now funds 80% of U.S. mosques to preach the radical Wahabi brand of Islam. Now we are asked to believe that a man who rose to power by overthrowing his own father is just a nice guy. Somehow I think our soldiers have a different vision of fighting terrorism.
It gets worse. Once MEFTA is complete, it would be entirely plausible for a company like Dubai Ports to sue the United States government and win in court. International law precedent has already been established. NAFTA, for instance, created a tribunal that already has overruled the U.S. Supreme Court, to the benefit of a Canadian company (NYT April 18, 04 NAFTA Tribunals Stir U.S. Worries). Modern U.S. foreign policy is now about creating global "government" one piece at a time at the expense of national sovereignty.
The U.S. corporate lobbying group called US-MEFTA Coalition (U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Coalition) includes among its 120 members three companies that have profited handsomely from the war--Exxon Mobil, Bechtel, Halliburton. Under the deal, the Omani government is forbidden to favor local businesses over foreign companies, including in the energy sector--its biggest industry. This fits the globalist mindset of using trade policy to break down national self-sufficiency everywhere on the planet. Bush, like Clinton before him, prefers "global integration." This is done by promoting foreign ownership everywhere and dependence upon a few politically-protected multinational corporations who play ball. Dubai Ports is a classic example. And, just as Americans remained outraged at Dubai, they need to understand that this same foreign policy won't win any friends abroad. No one, after all, likes to see their nation taken over by outsiders. Not exactly the smartest strategy in a region of the world where America is already viewed as "the Great Satan."
There are other multinational winners as well. Wal-Mart is also a member of the US-MEFTA Coalition. Both Wal-Mart and China want duty-free clothing imports, and the White House stands by ready to please both--gutting what remains of NC and SC textile industry. The National Labor Committee, a not-for-profit research organization, exposed the costs of the first Middle East trade agreement signed by Bush in December 2001 - the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement. After that agreement was implemented, new factories arrived in Jordan to service multinational companies from the clothing industry, including Target, JC Penney, and Wal-Mart, These factories have proved to be labor camps, with incredible human rights infractions, including 48-hour shifts, violent physical and psychological abuse and workers brought from foreign countries with their passports held by their employer/captors (LA Times, June 26, 06, Trading on Terror…) The State Department has reported Oman for human trafficking and forced labor abuses. Can we expect better from the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement, when this does not even include the paltry labor standards of the U.S.-Jordan agreement?
The Chinese government is expected to set up clothing factories in Oman and will import Chinese fabric, not American. Since Oman's population is small, "guest" workers from impoverished lands will be brought in to make garments intended for the U.S. The increasing number of "guest" workers will dilute the traditional culture and population - a globalist goal through out the world.
Dilution is a strategy for reducing the influence of local populations, which allows you to merge peoples, dissolve borders, and place nations under the umbrella of European Union-style regional governments.
Author Jerome Corsi, who wrote Unfit for Command exposing John Kerry, has written a new book due in July, arguing that the President is pushing a similar dilution of the local population here at home. "The President isn't serious about enforcing our immigration laws, because he is working to create a North American Union, which would merge the U.S. with Mexico and Canada" he stated recently on the G. Gordon Liddy and Michael Savage radio shows.
The mixing of peoples, however, risks the ire of local populations here and abroad, who will increasingly gravitate toward radical movements. Once again we are trading away America for the best enemies and competition that money can buy.
Update: The OMAN trade treaty passed the U.S. Senate and is scheduled for a vote in the U.S. House this week.
© 2006 Roxane Premont - All Rights Reserved
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roxane Premont worked as the Public Policy Director of the North Carolina Education Reform Foundation. At that time, she was mentored by Vernon Robinson. Robinson is a well known conservative activist and current congressional candidate.
Although she loved her employment, she left to home school her 3 children. Recently, she joined the John Birch Society and serves as the Durham, NC Chapter Leader. She also serves on the board of the NC Citizens Committee to Stop the FTAA.
By Roxane Premont
July 8, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
The White House is promoting so-called Free Trade Areas (FTAs) across the globe - in Asia, in Africa, and in our own hemisphere. The trade area the administration is pushing now is the Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA). The President's stated goal is to knit together all the nations of the Middle East under one regional authority by 2013. He intends to do this by first creating bilateral treaties, one nation at a time, with the U.S. Each one is called an "agreement" rather than a treaty in an effort to bypass the Constitutional requirement for a supermajority 2/3 vote in the U.S. Senate. On June 26th, the White House placed legislation before the U.S. Senate to approve a deal with a fifth Middle Eastern nation, the absolute monarchy of Oman. The administration calls it "countering terror with trade." Instead, it is marketing terror to profit multinational corporations, with no discernible benefits to Americans, Omanis, or what remains of NC and SC textile manufacturing.
The White House claims that the Sultan of Oman is our friend. That same claim was once made for the House of Saud, whose oil wealth now funds 80% of U.S. mosques to preach the radical Wahabi brand of Islam. Now we are asked to believe that a man who rose to power by overthrowing his own father is just a nice guy. Somehow I think our soldiers have a different vision of fighting terrorism.
It gets worse. Once MEFTA is complete, it would be entirely plausible for a company like Dubai Ports to sue the United States government and win in court. International law precedent has already been established. NAFTA, for instance, created a tribunal that already has overruled the U.S. Supreme Court, to the benefit of a Canadian company (NYT April 18, 04 NAFTA Tribunals Stir U.S. Worries). Modern U.S. foreign policy is now about creating global "government" one piece at a time at the expense of national sovereignty.
The U.S. corporate lobbying group called US-MEFTA Coalition (U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Coalition) includes among its 120 members three companies that have profited handsomely from the war--Exxon Mobil, Bechtel, Halliburton. Under the deal, the Omani government is forbidden to favor local businesses over foreign companies, including in the energy sector--its biggest industry. This fits the globalist mindset of using trade policy to break down national self-sufficiency everywhere on the planet. Bush, like Clinton before him, prefers "global integration." This is done by promoting foreign ownership everywhere and dependence upon a few politically-protected multinational corporations who play ball. Dubai Ports is a classic example. And, just as Americans remained outraged at Dubai, they need to understand that this same foreign policy won't win any friends abroad. No one, after all, likes to see their nation taken over by outsiders. Not exactly the smartest strategy in a region of the world where America is already viewed as "the Great Satan."
There are other multinational winners as well. Wal-Mart is also a member of the US-MEFTA Coalition. Both Wal-Mart and China want duty-free clothing imports, and the White House stands by ready to please both--gutting what remains of NC and SC textile industry. The National Labor Committee, a not-for-profit research organization, exposed the costs of the first Middle East trade agreement signed by Bush in December 2001 - the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement. After that agreement was implemented, new factories arrived in Jordan to service multinational companies from the clothing industry, including Target, JC Penney, and Wal-Mart, These factories have proved to be labor camps, with incredible human rights infractions, including 48-hour shifts, violent physical and psychological abuse and workers brought from foreign countries with their passports held by their employer/captors (LA Times, June 26, 06, Trading on Terror…) The State Department has reported Oman for human trafficking and forced labor abuses. Can we expect better from the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement, when this does not even include the paltry labor standards of the U.S.-Jordan agreement?
The Chinese government is expected to set up clothing factories in Oman and will import Chinese fabric, not American. Since Oman's population is small, "guest" workers from impoverished lands will be brought in to make garments intended for the U.S. The increasing number of "guest" workers will dilute the traditional culture and population - a globalist goal through out the world.
Dilution is a strategy for reducing the influence of local populations, which allows you to merge peoples, dissolve borders, and place nations under the umbrella of European Union-style regional governments.
Author Jerome Corsi, who wrote Unfit for Command exposing John Kerry, has written a new book due in July, arguing that the President is pushing a similar dilution of the local population here at home. "The President isn't serious about enforcing our immigration laws, because he is working to create a North American Union, which would merge the U.S. with Mexico and Canada" he stated recently on the G. Gordon Liddy and Michael Savage radio shows.
The mixing of peoples, however, risks the ire of local populations here and abroad, who will increasingly gravitate toward radical movements. Once again we are trading away America for the best enemies and competition that money can buy.
Update: The OMAN trade treaty passed the U.S. Senate and is scheduled for a vote in the U.S. House this week.
© 2006 Roxane Premont - All Rights Reserved
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roxane Premont worked as the Public Policy Director of the North Carolina Education Reform Foundation. At that time, she was mentored by Vernon Robinson. Robinson is a well known conservative activist and current congressional candidate.
Although she loved her employment, she left to home school her 3 children. Recently, she joined the John Birch Society and serves as the Durham, NC Chapter Leader. She also serves on the board of the NC Citizens Committee to Stop the FTAA.
posted by shummer60 at Tuesday, July 11, 2006
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