Thread: Free Trade: Fast Track Battle Heating Up

We should watch this very carefully - it will tell us a lot about exactly where each politician stands.


Free Trade: Fast Track Battle Heating Up

www.augustreview.com

by Patrick Wood

So-called "Fast Track" trade negotiation legislation has been a major Trilateral Commission tool since it's original introduction in 1974. Fast Track basically usurps authority from Congress, whose Constitutional responsibility is to negotiate international trade deals. FTA allows the President to privately negotiate and then present the results in a single package for a straight up or down vote with minimal public or Congressional debate.

In the past, only selected trade agreements have invoked Fast Track legislation, that is, the ones that are central to Trilateral policy of reshaping the world to fit their own pecuniary agenda. As stated in Toward a North American Union,

"It is startling to realize that since 1974, Fast Track has not been used in the majority of trade agreements. Under the Clinton presidency, for instance, some 300 separate trade agreements were negotiated and passed normally by Congress, but only two of them were submitted under Fast Track: NAFTA and the GATT Uruguay Round. In fact, from 1974 to 1992, there were only three instances of Fast Track in action: GATT Tokyo Round, U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement and the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. Thus, NAFTA was only the fourth invocation of Fast Track."

Last year, CAFTA was narrowly passed after frenetic lobbying by the Bush Administration. It was reported that Vice-president Cheney even spent the night at the Senate chamber so as to maximize his face time with stubborn hold-outs.

The Bush Administration had previously and successfully lobbied for Fast Track authority in 2002. After that vote, Bush stated that Fast Track would "open markets, expand opportunity, and create jobs for American workers and farmers.''

Now, President Bush's free trade pass-card is expiring on July 1, 2007. The race and the battle are on again to extend the authority for the duration of Bush's term. The trade agenda? Most importantly, the Doha Round of trade talks under the auspices of the World Trade Organization.

Lobbying for Fast Track transcends political parties. Charles Rangel (D-NY), a member of the Trilateral Commission, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont) lead the charge in the Democratic ranks. Traditionally, "Free Traders" are usually viewed as Republicans, but this is obviously not the case.

There will be intense corporate lobbying for Fast Track as well. On February 13, 2007, the Financial Times reported:

"Carla Hills, a former US trade representative, said the trade arm of the White House was 'small and overworked' and would need the resources of industry lobbyists to sell its agenda to Capitol Hill."

Carla Hills is a member of the Trilateral Commission and was the primary architect of NAFTA in 1993. Her concerns about White House free trade resources only underscore that there is only a very small number of people who are pushing this "New International World Order" agenda as proposed by the Trilateral Commission since 1973.

The Financial Times further reported that

"Susan Schwab, the current US trade representative, was due to meet business leaders yesterday, including representatives of Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar, Eastman Kodak, Cargill, UPS, New York Life and Abbott, to rally support ahead of talks with House Democrats tomorrow. "

Normally, one might expect such companies to lobby the Administration, but in this case, it is Schwab doing the pursuing.

There are many Trilateral Commission connections to this group of companies. For instance, Commissioner Michael Armacost, president of The Brookings Institution, is a director of Cargill. Commissioner Ernesto Zedillo (former president of Mexico) is a director of Proctor & Gamble.

The same FT article also mentions former Presidents George H.W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton, both of whom are members of the Trilateral Commission.

Bush's assurance that Fast Track would "open markets, expand opportunity, and create jobs for American workers and farmers'' is completely hollow. It was just announced that the 2006 U.S. trade deficit rose to a record $763.6 billion, a 6.5% increase over 2005.

If nothing else, the 2007 Fast Track authorization battle promises to reveal all the players - Republican and Democrat - who have knowingly or in ignorance bought into the Trilateral Commission's vision of turning the United States into an economic wasteland.

We will find out who all the traitors and we should vote them out of office.