With New NAFTA Looming, Activists Plan to Fight For Sovereignty

Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

Despite expressing his preference for bilateral trade deals rather than multilateral “free trade” regimes that erode the sovereignty of multiple nations, President Donald Trump and his top officials have indicated that a new version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is almost ready. A number of disagreements remain, but negotiators reportedly expect to have them worked out very soon. Senior U.S. administration officials are even said to be plotting wild schemes to ram the “modernized” NAFTA regime through Congress. But opposition among Americans and their elected representatives is growing louder.

The most recent update on the “free trade” scheme with Mexico and Canada came from President Trump, who previously called NAFTA one of the worst-ever trade deals and vowed to rip it up. “NAFTA as you know is moving along,” Trump said at the meeting in Washington with French President Emmanuel Macron, without going into more detail. “I could make a deal very quickly but I’m not sure that’s in the best interest of the United States. We’ll see what happens, but we’re doing very well.” Other top administration officials have also indicated that NAFTA negotiations are nearing an end, and that they hope to have a deal all three governments support in the not-too-distant future.

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In Canada, far-left Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose government has been trying to use NAFTA to advance all sorts of fringe policies across the continent, sounded excited too. Last week, he told reporters in London that there was “an opportunity to make significant progress” and that he was looking for a “win, win, win” deal that would “stand up for the interests of Canada.” While the Canadian prime minister did not elaborate on the details, his government has been openly championing a “progressive” and “feminist” NAFTA revamp that would enshrine radical environmentalism, Big Labor cronyism, climate alarmism, UN Agenda 2030, sustainable development, gender ideology, and more all across North America.

The Mexican government, which has swarms of negotiators in Washington working on NAFTA right now, also gave indications that an agreement was near. “Thursday is about starting to work through the list of issues pending. The truth is the horizon going forward is a horizon of a couple of weeks,” Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said last week. “I think you need to be alert that if there’s going to be rabbit for the stew, it’s going to be at the end of April.” Indeed, considering upcoming elections in Mexico could throw everything into disarray, that timeline is said to be crucial.

What might be in the new version of NAFTA remains unclear. However, based on the official letter to Congress announcing negotiations, the globalist officials running the negotiations are hoping to expand the agreement and further empower North American institutions at the expense of national sovereignty and self-government. Media reports have suggested that the new deal also contains stronger transnational “protections” for “labor,” which may mean more power for union bosses in an effort to blunt traditional opposition to “free trade” regimes from Big Labor and its Democrat Party allies.

Another key discussion surrounds the highly controversial “investor-state dispute settlement mechanism,” which allow corporations to sue governments and taxpayers in transnational “tribunals” beyond the reach of the people. Apparently the Trump administration is seeking to abolish or restrain them. But more than a few Republican lawmakers have warned that support for a new NAFTA in Congress, at least among many in the GOP, would evaporate if the ISDS schemes in the “modernized” pact were not at least as strong as the existing ones.

According to a report last week in Politico, top administration officials are concerned that Congress may not be willing to act on the new NAFTA scheme, preferring the status quo instead. And so, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a member of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations, reportedly favors a plot to try to force Congress to act. As described in news reports, the plan would see Trump withdraw from the existing NAFTA deal even before the new one was ready. Faced with the prospect of no NAFTA, globalist officials within the administration hope that Congress would feel forced to approve the new deal — even if it is unpopular with constituents. The plan would see lawmakers vote during the lame-duck session.

“The thinking is that Congress will have to approve whatever terms are in the new deal quickly, lest the U.S. is left hanging without an agreement with two of its largest trading partners,” Politico reported on April 20, citing current and former administration officials who said Lighthizer was pushing the scheme. “The strategy, which has been under consideration for months, figures that Congress may not act on the new agreement, preferring the status quo instead.” White House officials would only say that the administration was considering “all possible policy scenarios.” Apparently they are trying to bring Democrats on board in case more Republicans defect. Special interests are also lining up to support the plan.

Of course, the scheme to force congressional action is risky from the globalists’ perspective. If Trump withdraws from NAFTA and then Congress refuses to approve the new one, the whole “trilateral” regime erected over a period of decades could come crashing down — no more NAFTA tribunals to overrule America, no more transnational regulations, and no more “integration” of bureaucracies across North America. That may be a nightmare to globalist forces seeking to ensnare America in what they publicly call the “New World Order.” But for patriots seeking to preserve U.S. independence, it would be a dream come true.

The constitutionalist John Birch Society, a grassroots group with chapters all across America that has always opposed deals that surrender U.S. sovereignty, is one of the forces on the Right gearing up to fight the plan. “A sufficient number of Americans must come to understand that socialist globalization is leading to the total loss of our freedom,” said JBS National Field Director Chris Stevens. “Supranational arrangements such as NAFTA are tied into a much bigger labyrinth of international control.”

“Once our leaders have surrendered enough power to entities such as the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the United Nations, there will be no way for ordinary citizens to have any influence over the unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who are building global socialism,” added Stevens, who manages the society’s field staff across America. “We must stop this! In order to do so, we must inform ourselves and others. One of the best ways to get yourself and others quickly up to speed is to read International Merger by Foreign Entanglements and join Operation Book Blast to get this book into the hands of the most influential people in your state and across America.”

Stevens also said the JBS was focused on defeating so-called Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which facilitates the surrender of sovereignty “by allowing globalists in the Trump administration and future administrations to ram NAFTA, TPP, TTIP, and other regional integration schemes through Congress with limited debate, no amendments, no filibusters, and a simple up or down vote.” Americans, he concluded, “should demand that this unconstitutional surrender of power by our elected representatives be stopped.” One way to do that is to get a single chamber of Congress to pass a resolution disapproving of a TPA extension. “Contact Congress today!” Stevens urged.

Of course, long before transnational agreements with international bureaucracies and tribunals became the norm, Americans still managed to trade with the world. In fact, Americans led the world in international commerce for generations. Back then, though, as prescribed in the U.S. Constitution, Congress was in charge of regulating commerce with foreign nations — not NAFTA courts, the WTO, or similar schemes. Realizing that they had all but lost their right to self-government to unelected bureaucrats at the European Union, the British people defied the establishment and voted to secede from the EU with Brexit. It is not too late for Americans to similarly ditch NAFTA and other entangling schemes. But to preserve liberty and independence for future generations, the American people must get educated and activated now.

Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, education, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU or on Facebook.