Posted on 20 November 2012 by Ellen Croibier.
Economy in Crisis is circulating a petition to withdraw from the WTO on the WhiteHouse.gov website. See the text below. Those interested can go to the link and sign the petition.
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We petition the Obama administration to: Leave the World Trade Organization (WTO)!
Economy In Crisis
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November, 15, 2012
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It is instrumental in destroying our economy as it limits our ability to protect ourselves in all matters involving international trade. The WTO is a foreign, undemocratic organization whose charter, unbeknownst to most of us, even usurps our own Constitution, which has irresponsibly allowed them to dictate our international trade policies.
It is outrageous that we allow a foreign organization to do this. It has constantly and unjustifiably ruled against us when foreign countries have brought cases against us.
By signing the agreement with the World Trade Organization, the U.S. Congress agreed to concede a major portion of our sovereignty and usurp our democratic legislative process, including:
- Conforming U.S. laws, regulations and administrative procedures to the will of the WTO (Article XVI, p. 10)
- Subjecting all federal, state and local laws and practices that affect trade to international review by the WTO (Article XVI, p. 10)
- Allowing any WTO member country to challenge federal, state and local laws and practices as trade impeding (Section 2 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding)
- Taking all trade disputes to the WTO judiciary - giving the WTO final jurisdiction over all trade altercations. No appeal exists outside of the WTO (Section 2 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding)
- Empowering the WTO to enforce its rulings by imposing fines on the United States until we comply
The Rights of America are Subservient to the Will of the World Trade Organization. Those who Signed this Lengthy Agreement did not Read the Fine Print or did not have the Interests of America in Mind.
We must have 25,000 signatures by December 13, 2012 for President Obama to take this petition seriously.
Click Here to Sign the Petition TODAY!
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It’s worth a shot. A columnist in my local newspaper was talking about some of the petitions on this White House web site. I have very little faith in the Obama administration to do anything about trade reform or jobs, but this is an opportunity to elevate the issue.
I have been following Economy In Crisis for nearly two years. For about a year, I posted comments regularly, but then realized that there were only about a half-dozen readers engaged in the discussions. For a while, the site was dominated by a handful of recently-indoctrinated, liberal college students. When I would respond to their leftist drivel, I would get a handful of angry responses from their college buddies. When I tried to engage them in conversation, they would scream insults and run away. They even tried posting phony comments using my name. Eventually, they all just disappeared.
I have written to the folks who run the site and suggested that they get some professional help with increasing web traffic. I also suggested that having the “DailyKos” kids spouting leftist propaganda was driving people away.
Overall, Economy In Crisis is an serious website with a professional image. They have some very smart people writing and contributing articles. Their issue is my issue. I would like to see them get the web traffic they deserve. We need them to help get the message out.
Have the free traders written this to make us look illiterate?
The above petition is very badly written, with errors and a feeling of incompleteness, not even numbering the points, not rounding them out with mention of effects on employment and prosperity, no mention of a replacement policy….but I signed it…with great embarrassment.
“…the U.S. Congress agreed to conceded to:” [redundant phrase]
“… Empowering the WTO to enforce its rulings by imposing fines on the United States until we comply” [no period]
As for the EIC website, I like it, though it is uneven in quality of articles, from very good to pretty bad. It feels pretty wide open in terms of editorial control on the article perspectives, which isn’t altogether bad because people need to have a discussion allowing room for different perspectives and evolution of understandings.
Instead of complaining about article quality I should see it as an easy entry to try my own hand at publishing some of my own analysis of political economy, but the hours it would take might feel wasted if, as Bruce notes, only a very few people ever come by to read it. I was often the only commenter or only one of 3 or 4, usually the same few people. I value the discussion with them but it is not reaching any mass audience right now.
Amen Bruce and Will,
I am a small Business owner in Michigan.I am directly tied to manufacturing.Any body in the country with any common sense can see these trade agreements are unconstitutional and detrimental to the health of the U.S. economy.The politicians that have signed and passed these agreements are unpatriotic and do not have the interest of the United States at heart.They are pandering to special interest groups and large corporations.They have no intention of doing what is right for the United States.We have no true honest leaders at the top or in Congress.
There are simple Quick and effective changes that could be made if Congress truly wanted to serve the interest of the United States first.I don’t no hoe to fix that aspect of the problem.
As to both of you leaving a reply to some of the issues that come up on this website.I think you would be surprised at the number of people who are reading your comments and appreciate
and agree with everything you are saying.Most of us just don’t take the time to chime in,but that doesn’t mean we are not here.Thank you for taking the time to add to the quality of this website.
In addition to the grammatical and stylistic issues, the petition creates the false impression that all trade disputes go to WTO dispute settlement and misstates the record on our cases won and lost at the WTO. It’s hard to blame the WTO for our lousy tax system, our faltering educational system, our crumbling and increasingly antiquated infrastructure, our persistent lack of an energy policy, and so many other self-inflicted wounds. Even on currency, it’s hard to blame the WTO for our 20 years of inaction. The alternative to the WTO is the law of the jungle, and the US is no longer the biggest, most fearsome creature. We need a well-functioning rule of law now more than ever in our history.
China Watcher I appreciate what you say about the need for peaceful resolution of trade disputes, ie, rule of law v. law of the jungle, but the badly-written petition nonetheless has a valid critique of our WTO membership. If our nation’s sovereign right to regulate commerce, labor and environment are subject to fines and sanctions imposed by WTO adjudication bodies (panel of 3 trade lawyers I think), as Economy in Crisis and Paul Craig Roberts and other analysts have asserted, then we should withdraw from the WTO or at least rewrite the terms so our sovereignty (and any other nation’s sovereignty) is not signed away to trade lawyers with zero accountability to the American people. Additionally, our experience of massive offshoring of industries at an unprecedented and unsustainable rate with frightful implications for the future of America’s industrial capacity and prosperity….well, somehow the rule of law under the WTO is not helping our people. You are right that so much of the US governance is ruinous to our economy and society, and therefore we can’t blame everything on the WTO. But we can blame much of it on the sell out of the people of the country by the Congress and Executive, WTO being just one component of the larger sell-out.
Pat says it very well, I quote from his post here above:
“Anybody in the country with any common sense can see these trade agreements are unconstitutional and detrimental to the health of the U.S. economy. The politicians that have signed and passed these agreements are unpatriotic and do not have the interest of the United States at heart. They are pandering to special interest groups and large corporations. They have no intention of doing what is right for the United States. We have no true honest leaders at the top or in Congress.”
Amen Pat.
Will: I agree that the core of our problem is political — the stranglehold of special interests over most components of public policy. That’s why a strong people’s lobby like CPA is vital to our current and future prosperity.
I just signed it.We need more signatures.We should tell Public Citizen about the petition.