THE CLOSED BORDERS CROWD:

Why conservatives don't endorse free trade (Gary North, July 30, 2004, WND)

Back in 1976, I was Congressman Ron Paul’s research assistant. I had contacts with other Congressional staffers on Capitol Hill. One evening, I attended an informal get-together in the Georgetown area. The host was a retired diplomat whose daughter worked in Senator Jesse Helms’ office. I had been invited by Howard Segermark, also a Helms staffer.

One moment in the evening’s chit-chat has stuck in my mind ever since. In discussing free trade, one man, whom I had never met before, expressed his view of free trade. "Free trade is when you stick a .45 automatic to the temple of some Asian and tell him, ‘Gook, we’re going to trade . . . on my terms.’"

I dismissed him as an ideological aberration. I don’t think he was on any Congressional staff. But, over the years, I have come to the conclusion that both conservatives and liberals share his view of free trade.

The various multinational trade agreements that have been signed by the United States government, most notably those authorizing the control of the terms of trade by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), are essentially forced-trade agreements. They require private companies in each nation to meet production standards that are imposed by international bureaucracies. Reductions in tariffs and import quotas are accompanied by labor restrictions, pollution standards, and large printed volumes of other impositions. These restrict the operation of free markets. What appear to be reductions in government control (sales taxes and import limits) are accompanied by increases in government control (production codes). "The large print giveth, and the fine print taketh away."

All participating nations are required by international law to interfere with voluntary transactions within each nation, as well as voluntary transactions across national borders. Officers of these nations must abide by the legal interpretations made by unelected international bureaucrats.

The erosion of sovereignty is the one legitimate criticism of the current free trade scheme, but the solution is to unilaterally remove all our own trade barriers, not to dump free trade.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 2, 2004 6:38 AM