America’s Final Independence Day

by Crista Huff (July 3, 2015)

In 1776, the American colonies declared their independence from King George III’s oppressive British rule, commenced fighting the American Revolution, and became a sovereign nation in 1783.

My friend Mary Anne made a Facebook post yesterday, asking her friends how they planned to celebrate our “Independence from England”. In light of the President’s June 29th signature on Fast Track trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation, Mary Anne’s words really struck me: This will be the U.S.A.’s last Independence Day.

That’s right people. The United States of America is on the verge of approving and signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, and on its heels, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade agreement. These pending approvals will be expedited by the recently-approved Fast Track/TPA legislation, which specifically eliminates Congress’ normal debate and amendment powers on trade agreements, and makes it easier to quickly pass trade legislation, with only a simple majority vote.

These trade agreements give away U.S. sovereignty in a wide variety of far-reaching areas: our justice system, immigration, food safety; also including areas which are still secret; and additional areas yet to be determined by the new global Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission. (I say “yet to be determined”, because the TPP is a living agreement, meaning that the TPP Commission, and global courts, will have the power to change and add to the TPP, without requiring U.S. approval. Imagine signing a business contract, a rental contract, a pre-nuptial contract, that can be arbitrarily changed, in the future, without your consent!)

The U.S.A. will no longer be a sovereign nation. Sovereign. Sort of a weird word, unless you’re a Constitutional or history scholar, which I definitely am not.

• sov·er·eign (ˈsäv(ə)rən/): adjective, possessing supreme or ultimate power; political control in the government of a country, state, etc.

The TPP requires disputes and lawsuits to go to a global tribunal. U.S. parties to those lawsuits will not be able to say, “No, I want to go through the U.S. justice system, with a jury of my peers, and the right to appeal.” If Mitsubishi sues the U.S. because it doesn’t like a local law about wages or taxes, an environmental regulation, or a decision made by an American court, the U.S. is required to spend millions of dollars to send attorneys to a global court. The decision made by the secret global tribunal is never subject to appeal, and can easily amount to hundreds of millions — or even billions — of dollars. These lawsuits have historically been used as a bully pulpit, to force countries to roll back their national laws; and they serve as a threat to all countries participating in trade deals that if they enact similar laws, they, too, could be sued in global court.

Okay, lawsuits, whatever. For many of us, it’s hard to relate to lawyers and business executives. So let’s look at immigration. Many voters remember Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) stating, “There’s no way we would sign off on immigration reform in the trade agreements.” (Newsmax, April 30, 2015)

Was he naive? Was he mincing words? Was he purposely deceiving American voters? Because there’s an additional agreement that’s being secretly negotiated, which is also covered by the recently-signed Fast Track/TPA legislation. It’s called the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). It’s all about mandating work visas. TiSA allows approximately 50 countries to each send large numbers of skilled and unskilled workers to work in America, including Turkey and Pakistan! Congress will soon be asked to sign this agreement!

When Congressman Ryan said that these trade agreements would not reform U.S. immigration laws, he was correct. The trade agreements do not reform U.S. laws, they override U.S. laws; they rank higher. Any and all provisions of trade agreements, signed by Congress and the President, rank higher than any and all state and federal laws and regulations: food safety regulations, environmental regulations, the U.S. justice system, immigration laws, and the Constitution itself. Giving up sovereignty means that the U.S. will continue to be a land mass, but it will no longer be a self-governing nation.