WTO Destroying American Sovereignty

http://www.economyincrisis.net/content/wto-destroying-american-sovereignty

The World Trade Organization (WTO) came into existence in 1995 to “deal with the global rules of trade between nations.” The WTO is supposed to provide a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements and settle trade disputes with one another.

The bylaws of the WTO supersede our own Constitution, which is a contradiction to the stated premise of the Constitution to be the “supreme law of the land.” Member nations must adhere to WTO policies without any legislative process in their own countries. Local policies aimed at rewarding companies who hire local residents, use domestic materials, or adopt environmentally sound practices are essentially illegal under the WTO.

Also, the WTO is indifferent to workers' rights, child labor and environmental protection. For
example, many corporations are assaulting environmental regulations as “barriers to trade” in order to force member nations to change their laws. The WTO considers such matters not worthy of deeper consideration.

This is a system which is designed to deindustrialize the United States, ship our jobs overseas and substantially lower our standard of living. By August 2007, the United States had been a defendant in 47 cases, and had lost 40 of them, requiring changes to laws to allow such things as Internet gambling and environmentally unfriendly fishing standards.

video and more at the link --

WTO - basically an ultimate super-corporation. Super'man' for the wealthy?

the United States, ship our jobs overseas and substantially lower our standard of living."

and who the investors are. I think we may find some corporate leaders in the mix.

are a mere front for. I have been thinking that we keep putting the blame on corporations but we forget that those corporations have stockholders who are actually responsible for the conduct of their companies. We need to get personal.

The complaints against the WTO began in the RW press especially since the Dohar round. So why are you importing it to DU?

Like GATT which preceded it the WTO attempts to ensure that no one country manipulates trade by the unfair imposition of laws and tariffs. If regulations unfairly discriminate against products being imported then WTO they will ask that those laws be amended. Of course businesses try to manipulate the rules under which the WTO operates and make use of flaws or uncertainties within existing rules - but that is normal, if unethical, business practise.

each country agrees to modify its behavior in exchange for other countries modifying theirs.

Should we avoid all new international agreements/organizations (climate change, nuclear proliferation, trade, etc.) and perhaps withdraw from existing ones (like the UN, which would make the Birchers and far-right quite happy)?

Conservatives here have long argued that signing up to any kind of climate change international agreement would damage our national sovereignty by forcing us to change the way our economy works in order to comply with the specifics of any such agreement. If any such climate change agreement had "teeth" we (and other countries) would suffer some consequences ((often administered by foreigners - the horror!) whenever we didn't live up to our commitments.

If one believes that "national sovereignty" is some kind of ultimate goal that's fine. And you will probably find a lot of support globally. Unfortunately most of that support will come from the most conservative parts of the political spectrum. Tea partiers and the far right in the US want out of the UN and our trade agreements. In Europe the right wants to weaken/destroy the EU so that countries can reinstate border controls and tariffs within Europe.

Only in the US do significant parts of the left fight to strengthen national sovereignty at the expense of global openness and cooperation. In most of the developed world it's the right wing that wants their country back the way it was before "the left pushed through all of this global openness and cooperation". (Not too surprising since it was FDR, then Truman, who pushed for the United Nations and GATT (which became the WTO).) The left elsewhere is invested in fighting the right's efforts to enhance national sovereignty by weakening or destroying international agreements and organizations.

This writer makes claims he does not support with evidence or facts.

I'm no fan of the WTO. I do think this writer's premise is correct but the only proof we have is the writer's own words. He provides no quotes, no by-laws or mission statements from the WTO. How do we know we can't use our Constitution as a defense against WTO rules? Why and how is the US bound by the WTO? Where is the treaty we must follow or the established laws we can not break?

You can not fight something you do not know. If we are to fight off the WTO, we need to know all about it. After reading this article I'm left with nothing substantial about the WTO. It's almost as if the WTO is some mystical super power that will magically destroy us all.