The WTO Now Controls Our Economy, Fate and Future
The World Trade Organization is a self serving and undemocratic organization that operates outside of our control. The U.S. Constitution states that all treaties made under the authority of the United States become supreme law of the land (Article VI). When our government stymied under pressure from foreign-represented lobbyists and signed the WTO treaty our government effectively weakened our sovereignty.
Our laws, regulations and administrative procedures are now open to challenge.
Since entering the WTO in 2001, trade with China has resulted in the loss of 2.8 million jobs through 2010, according to the most recent study by the Economic Policy Institute. Those fortunate enough to retain their jobs witnessed their annual earnings decrease by roughly $1,400. American workers are put in direct competition with one another as more and more employers look to offshore production to nations with lower wage rates.
Jobs losses have affected every sector of the economy in both white and blue-collar occupations. Over that time we have lost:
- 909,400 jobs in computer and electronic products
- 178,700 jobs in apparel and accessories
- 204,300 jobs in administrative support services
- 173,100 jobs in professional, scientific and technical services
These job losses can be directly attributed to China’s rapidly growing trade surplus with us maintained by the systematic manipulation of the Chinese yuan.
By purposely undervaluing their currency, China subsidizes their exports – some estimates put this subsidy at nearly 30 percent. This practice has allowed America’s trade deficit with China to balloon since China entered into the WTO. In 2001, when China joined the WTO, they held a small trade surplus of $84 billion with us. By 2010, that number had grown exponentially to $278 billion, growing over $21 billion per year on average.
With the U.S-China trade deficit exploding, more job losses are forecast in the future. The Progressive Policy Institute claims that unless the trade deficit is brought under control, 12 million information-based jobs in the U.S. are highly susceptible in the future. This can be seen today in what some are calling the jobless “recovery.” Without jobs, there can be no recovery.
Beyond the quantifiable numbers of economic hardship here in America, the WTO is inherently wrong for other reasons. The organization remains indifferent to issues of workers rights, child labor and environmental protection standards. The organization has little to no transparency as all of its hearings are closed to the public. It is no wonder then that we lose nine out of every 10 trade disputes brought before the body.
The WTO has come to represent the most efficient form of colonization the world has ever seen – reaping all the benefits with no downsides of occupation. The corporate agenda of the organization has destroyed the developing economies of the world, exploiting cheap resources and giving them little in return.
We must renegotiate terms or completely withdraw from the WTO – immediately!
The World Trade Organization (WTO): America Can No Longer Live With It
The WTO is a biased undemocratic organization of 153 nations that limits America’s ability to act in its own best interest. In it, the United States has no larger vote than a smaller country, such as Grenada (Article IX, p. 5).
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
- Disallowing Congress to change the agreement.
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.
America’s WTO Agreement MUST Be Amended or Eliminated!
Amending the agreement with the WTO requires submitting a proposal to the Ministerial Conference. Once the amendment has been accepted, it should only take 90 days to render a consensus. (Article X, p. 10). If the United States opts to withdraw, the President would be required to send a letter to both the Congress and the Director General of the WTO and we would be free of any obligations to the WTO in six months (Article XV, p. 10). Until then, per Article VI of the United States Constitution, our agreement with the World Trade Organizations “shall be the Supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby.”