THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 154, July 19, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CAFTA: MORE BUREAUCRACY, LESS FREE TRADE
By Dr. Ron Paul
THE PROPOSED CENTRAL AMERICA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT: A SCHEME THAT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH AMERICAN
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY & WOULD, IF ADOPTED, BE IN DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION -- LAYING
ANOTHER STONE IN THE FOUNDATION OF A SYSTEM OF GLOBAL GOVERNMENT -- CAFTA MEANS MORE GOVERNMENT, MORE
BUREAUCRACY, & MORE GOVERNMENTAL INTERFERENCE IN THE FLOW OF ECONOMIC GOODS -- ADOPTION OF CAFTA WOULD
RESULT IN MORE GLOBALISM, MORE STATISM, LESS FREEDOM, & LESS ECONOMIC GROWTH & PROSPERITY
FULL STORY:
This Summer, the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA, has been the source of intense political
debate in Washington, D.C. On June 30, the U.S. Senate passed the legislation implementing CAFTA. On the same date, the
Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the legislation. It is expected that, within the
next two weeks, the implementing legislation will come up for a floor vote in the full House.
I oppose CAFTA for a very simple reason: it is unconstitutional. The United States Constitution clearly grants to Congress alone
the authority to regulate foreign commerce, or international trade -- i.e. trade between the U.S.A. and other nations. The plain text
of Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution [1] is incontrovertible. Neither Congress by legislation nor the President
and Senate by treaty can give this authority away, any more than the First Amendment can be repealed by enactment of federal
legislation or by exercise of the treaty-making power.
This fundamental point, based on the plain meaning of the Constitution, cannot be overstated. Every member of Congress who
votes for CAFTA is voting to abdicate power to an international body, doing so in direct violation of the Constitution.
We don’t need government agreements to have free trade. We merely need to lower or eliminate taxes on the American people,
without regard to what other nations do. Remember, tariffs are simply taxes on consumers. Americans have always bought goods
from abroad; the only question is how much our government taxes us for doing so. As economist Henry Hazlitt explained, tariffs
simply protect politically-favored special interests at the expense of consumers, while lowering wages across the economy as a
whole. Hazlitt, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Murray Rothbard, and countless other economists have demolished every
fallacy concerning tariffs, proving conclusively that unilateral elimination of tariffs benefits the American people.
We don’t need CAFTA or any other international agreement to reap the economic benefits promised by CAFTA supporters. We
only need to change our own harmful economic and tax policies. Let the rest of the world hurt their citizens with tariffs. If we
simply reduce tariffs and taxes at home, we will attract capital and see our economy flourish.
It is absurd to believe that CAFTA and other trade agreements do not diminish American sovereignty. When we grant to
quasi-governmental international bodies the power to make decisions about American trade rules, we lose sovereignty plain and
simple. I can assure you, firsthand, that Congress has changed American tax laws for the sole reason that the World Trade
Organization decided our rules unfairly impacted the European Union. Hundreds of tax bills languish in the U.S. House Ways and
Means Committee, while the one bill drafted strictly to satisfy the WTO was brought to the House floor and passed with great
urgency last year.
The tax bill in question is just the tip of the iceberg. The quasi-judicial regime created under CAFTA will have the same power to
coerce our cowardly national legislature into changing American laws in the future. Labor and environmental rules are inherently
associated with trade laws, and we can be sure that CAFTA will provide yet another avenue for globalists to impose the Kyoto
Accord and similar agreements on the American people. CAFTA also imposes on American business the International Labor
Organization’s manifesto, which could have been written by Karl Marx. I encourage every Conservative and Libertarian who
supports CAFTA to read the ILO declaration and consider whether they still believe the pact will make America more free.
CAFTA means more government! Like the United Nations, NAFTA and the WTO, it represents another stone in the foundation
of a global governmental system. Most Americans understand they are already governed by largely unaccountable forces in
Washington. Now, they face having their domestic laws and public policies influenced by bureaucrats in Brussels, Zurich, or
Mexico City.
CAFTA and other international trade agreements do not represent free trade. Free trade occurs in the absence of government
interference in the flow of goods, while CAFTA represents more government in the form of an international body. It is
incompatible with our Constitution and national sovereignty, and we don’t need it to benefit from international trade.
NOTE:
[1] U.S. Constitution, Section 8, Clause 3 -- The Commerce Clause: "The Congress shall
have power ... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, among the several
States, and with the Indian Tribes...."
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Government & the Economy
Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, elected from and representing the Fourteenth
Congressional District of Texas. Congressman Paul is considered to be one of America's leading spokesmen for constitutional
government, the rule of law, liberty under law, the private enterprise system,, free market economics, sound monetary policy, and
fiscal restraint on the part of the U.S. national government.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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