G A T T:
The Big Screw
The Big Screw
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G A T T:
The Big Screw |
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by Hank Shaw
If you take the vowels out, Le GATT, as it is called in French,
means 'crumbs' in Arabic. How fitting. Below are some of the more disastrous and
depressing aspects of The New World Economic Order. Remember, a fax, letter or
phone call to your local member of Congress or Senate will do more than you
think - you'd be amazed at the power the White Right wields through its
organized letter-writing campaigns. How do you think Jesse Helms was allowed to
exist? Are you going to let middle-aged, conservative 700 Club watchers
out-agitate you? I didn't think you would. It's us or them, and politicians
listen to whomever shouts the loudest. Let 'em know that The General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade must die.
GATT Weirdness
The Alliance for GATT, a Washington, D.C. based lobbying group,
has recently spent $40,000 on one of the wackier lobbying stunts of all time:
GATT trading cards. Based loosely on baseball trading cards, the GATT cards
feature All-Stars, such as trade representative Mickey Kantor and President
Clinton, and cards for each state. The cards are being distributed on Capitol
Hill by young GATT larvae, probably sons and daughters of the GATT All-Stars
themselves.
Time-Honored Remedies, Inc.
The neem bush has been known in India
for thousands of years. Its branches contain fluoride, making it an excellent
natural toothbrush. Its leaves are a mild pesticide and an extract of the neem's
active ingredient, azadirachtin, is used in soap and as a contraceptive. Pretty
cool, huh? Too bad WR Grace, a US-based company, just took out a patent on the
extraction process. This is the same process that in 1968 was declared 'common
knowledge' in an Indian patent hearing. The kicker? Under GATT, millions of
Indians will have to pay royalties to WR Grace - after all, they patented the
process, didn't they?
Eek! Dolphins in my tunafish!
Under GATT, the US law that
has made American tuna companies become 'dolphin safe' will be abolished. It has
already been branded as an unnecessary barrier to trade by a GATT tribunal. The
World Trade Organization, which will enforce GATT's rules, has already said it
will impose sanctions on the US if it does not rescind the regulation. Sorry,
Charley.
State, Indian Sovereignty? No longer
Not satisfied with attacking
national laws, the GATT will allow entities (read: transnational corporations)
to challenge "sub-federal jurisdictions," defined as "states and their political
subdivisions, the District of Colombia and Indian Tribes." So much for
California's environmental laws. This also represents a serious attack on
American Indian's treaty rights. Look to see more toxic waste piling up on
reservations like the Menominee and Winnebago soon.
German recycling program will be thrown out
The Duales System Deutschland, one of the toughest recycling
programs in the world that requires all packaging to be recycled, will also
thrown on the scrap heap once GATT and the WTO get a hold of it. All clean air
and water laws, laws regulating ozone-depleting CFCs and other environmental and
recycling laws can and will be seen as a hindrance to free trade. After all, it
is easier to be dirty than to be clean.
Conrad tries to save state laws
Call US
Sen. Kent Conrad and tell him to keep up the good work. He is sponsoring an
amendment to GATT that will protect US laws from the WTO. The Conrad Amendment,
according to the Fair Trade Campaign, "would require that local and state laws,
like federal laws, be preempted by future congressional action, not by the WTO
or the US Trade Representative." The Administration assures us that the WTO
would not preempt such laws, but is opposed to Conrad's amendment.
Something's fishy...
In the Northwest Territories, which make up Oregon, Washington and
British Columbia, salmon is king. Too bad there are more Americans than
Canadians fishing offshore, because they have been hitting what the Canadians
claim to be their stock pretty hard. In response, they slapped a hefty surcharge
on any American vessel fishing in Canadian waters and required that all fish
caught there must be processed in Canada. You guessed it, this law, aimed at
conservation of the salmon stock, will also be declared illegal by the WTO.
GATT to farmers: A bad seed
The US government wants to slash $1.7 billion from
agriculture programs in order to help pay for the GATT. Needless to say American
farmers are upset about paying for a treaty that is going to put many of them
out of business. Funny how government works, isn't it?
Much of this material was culled from GATT Alert!, a publication of the Fair
Trade Campaign. GATT Alert!
can be ordered from them at P.O. Box 80066, Minneapolis, MN 55408. Other people
to call for more info are the Citizens Trade Campaign, a Washington, D.C. based
organization. Their phone number is (202) 879.4297. |
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