Posted on 03/15/2006 9:09:10 AM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
"How's this for the lead sentence of a news article from the near future: 'The World Trade Organization has ruled that the United States broke international trade rules by failing to curb carbon emissions,'" wrote Andrew Leonard in the February 24 issue of Salon. In this fashion, the World Trade Organization would essentially become the body responsible for enforcing the UN's Kyoto treaty on so-called greenhouse gases.
This scenario is hardly as fanciful as it may seem at first. It plays off a suggestion made by Joseph Stiglitz, the former chief economist for the World Bank and a former member of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
According to a February 20 report in the Independent of London, Stiglitz believes that "the US could be forced to take action on climate change using world trade laws.... The [European Union] and others should apply to the WTO for a ruling which declares that America's refusal to participate in carbon curbs constitutes a de facto subsidy to US industry, which is illegal under trade rules."
The WTO, a Geneva-based body that presently has 148 member nations, is — in effect — the UN of global trade. Unlike the UN itself, the WTO actually has the power to enforce its decrees. When a country or region wins a case before a WTO arbitration panel, it is authorized to impose punitive trade sanctions against the loser. The effectiveness of this enforcement mechanism was demonstrated in late 2003, when President Bush, in compliance with a WTO ruling, rescinded a set of tariffs on European steel imports.
In a presidential press conference held shortly after the November 2004 election, Mr. Bush emphasized the importance of submitting to the supposed authority of the WTO: "We've worked hard to comply with the WTO. It's important that all nations comply with WTO rulings. I'll work with Congress to get into compliance."
In December 1994, the WTO was approved during a special lame-duck session of Congress. Incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who supported the WTO, admitted that if the agreement to create the body were approved, the result would be "a very big transfer of power" from Congress to an unelected global body.
Declared Gingrich: "We need to be honest about the fact that we are transferring from the United States at a practical level significant authority to a new organization.... This is not just another trade agreement. This is adopting something which twice, once in the 1940s and once in the 1950s, the U.S. Congress rejected. I am not even saying that we should reject it; I, in fact, lean toward it."
Now that the WTO is emerging as the economic equivalent of a world government body, we can see that Gingrich's estimate was no exaggeration.
ping
What morons! The increase in carbon dioxide is from the ocean only. As the Sun gets a bit more hot, the ocean warms a bit and expels carbon dioxide just as a glass of soda loses its fizz and goes flat. But the ocean is immense and is the source of 100% of our increase in carbon dioxide.
Looks like the John Birch Society has chosen a side. [chuckle]
And now we see the noose of globalization tighten around America's throat.
"Lower prices to consumers" - the favorite mantra of free traitors - will have consequences. Now we see the beginning of the loss of national sovereignty as America is ruled by the globalists.
See what you've done, free traitors? Proud of yourselves?
We will not stop until your drinking water is fluoridated, peasant.
This will never happen, because rather than sending our economy (and later the world economy) into a collapse by adhering to the "Kyoto Protocol", in the worst-case scenario we would withdraw from the WTO and negotiate seperate trade agreements with all other nations. Ultimately, we have more and bigger guns than those nations that want to enforce the Kytoto agreement, so they won't be able to enforce it on us.
If these jerks keep selling off our Sovereignty like that, there won't be much left for incoming congress critters to sell off. ;>
I do believe our 'representative government' is representing someone else's interests. But it was bound to happen sooner or later, since there are no provisions to hold congress accountable for anything anymore. It's only reasonable since they've taxed everything to the max and find it hard to squeeze out another nickel, that they start parcelling out their powers to foreign interests. What next? Our natural resources? Oops. Too late. UN Biospheres and all that sustainable crap, you know.
:<
We used to....
George Bush has been very busy outsourcing those.
Huh? WTF are you talking about?
I'm sorry, I was busy spraying component freeze into a styrofoam cup. Did you say something?
What are you talking about? I didn't post to you directly.
I scanned those two threads and I didn't see any specific discussion of military power or "outsourcing" of military power. There are some good arguments in there, but those theads look like a very one-sided discussion of trade policies.
You're absolutely right about that. The U.S. does not give up any of its sovereignty when it signs these trade agreements, since this country has clearly shown that it can -- and will -- abide by them selectively. For clear evidence of this, just look at the Canadian lumber dispute that is now entering its fifth year despite the fact that the U.S. tariff has been deemed "illegal" by every international trade board that has reviewed the case.
Traditionally, wartime military production is derived from a healthy manufacturing base that can be quickly converted to mass-scale arms production. Don't think I have to mention what's happened to our manufacturing sector over the last decade. We're also letting go of proprietary military technology to foreign powers that have no long-term record of backing us on the international stage. And then there's the fact that military spending, as a percentage of GDP, has been dropping steadily for a couple of decades now. IOW: 'Outsourcing' defense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.