In violation of this critically important principle, on numerous occasions Congress has unconstitutionally voted to delegate this power to international organizations. In recent years, by their actions in this area, Congress and the Executive branch have consistently and methodically subverted the sovereignty of the United States. By their efforts, power to regulate our commerce with foreign nations has been passed to such organizations as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Other so-called "free trade" agreements are pending and aggressively being fostered, such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), which would effectively erase the borders between the United States and Mexico and Canada. To add insult to injury, the United States generally provides the bulk of financial resources to these organizations, and has only one vote in these decidedly anti-American forums.
Approval of these agreements by our national leadership has allowed international non-elected bureaucracies to dictate numerous economic and domestic policies of the United States in a manner which should be solely the prerogative of the United States. Additionally, these agreements eliminate U.S. import fees which were Constitutionally authorized as a revenue source to fund the Nation’s legal activities; and as this revenue source is eliminated, additional burdens are placed upon the backs of American taxpayers, either through additional debt, or through higher internal taxes.
In spite of this reduction of U.S. tariffs, these agreements are not about free trade. They are about managed trade. Trade managed not by Congress as mandated by Article I Section 8 clause 3 of the United States Constitution, but trade managed by supranational unelected bodies of bureaucrats which will never have their actions questioned by an electorate that can unseat them from their pompous appointments.
Of even greater concern is the demonstrable fact that these types of agreements lead, ultimately, to merger into regional governments which subvert national sovereignty. These agreements have far less to do with free trade between nations, and far more to do with subverting the sovereignty of the United States to a globalist organization that does not uphold the principles vouched safe by the United States Constitution
Just as the European Common Market has metastasized into a supranational regional government which dictates economic and domestic policy to the European nations which have joined it, these agreements are precursors to a regional arrangement which will ultimately subvert and destroy our inspired Constitution. As testimony of this, we have the European outcome unfolding right before our eyes, as well as the experience our own nation has had with subversive rulings from both NAFTA and WTO. We are foolish to think that these historical facts will not replicate themselves if we follow the exact path which brought about the European Union (EU).
At the beginning of the American Revolution, the great patriot Patrick Henry stated: "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past." [Patrick Henry, speech to the Virginia Convention, Richmond, Virginia, March 23, 1775.—William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, 9th ed., pp. 138-39 (1836, reprinted 1970). Language altered to first person.]
In The Tempest, William Shakespeare observed "...what's past is prologue," meaning the experience of the past is but an introduction to that which is to come. [Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1]
And in volume one of The Life of Reason we read: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it…. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in whom instinct has learned nothing from experience." [George Santayana, The Life of Reason, vol. 1, chapter 12, p. 284 (1905).]
In light of this wisdom, our concerns about these sovereignty-destroying agreements are well-founded. We may learn valuable lessons from the glaring example of the history of the European Union, and from that example we may learn how regional governments which subvert national governments are born. We also have the painful history of many examples of where the actions taken under authority of NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO have undermined the ability of the United States to act independently and to our national benefit. We must learn from these experiences. And wisdom would dictate that we modify our path to return to one that is both Constitutionally sound, and also protective of our national interests.
It is imperative that the members of the United States Congress stand forth and exercise the most vigorous efforts possible within the proper authority of their respective Offices to wrest from the clutches of foreign entities this critically important power, and restore their Constitutional responsibility to regulate commerce with foreign nations.
Keep the Spirit Alive and Well!
