In 1942 during WWII Hitler and his economic minister Albert Speer came up with a plan to unite all of Europe. The goal was to have one European state, one central bank and one currency all under the name of the European Economic Community. Hitler lost his battle for a united Europe but his dream did not die with him. Socialists who rose to power after Nazism was defeated kept the idea alive. It began shortly after WWII.
In 1951 the Treaty of Paris established a relatively small coal and steel agreement among six Western European countries. In 1958, 13 years after the death of Nazism, they named their six nation group the European Economic Community — the same name used by Albert Speer. It was informally called the common market.
In 1973 several other nations joined and the name of this increasingly political entanglement became the European Community. When the number of countries grew to 12 in 1986, the European flag began to be used by the Community. The European Union was formally established in 1993 when the Maastricht Treaty went into effect. The 28 member nations of the EU have now lost most of their independence and control of foreign policy, armed forces, legal systems, trade, immigration, and national currencies.
President George Washington in his farewell address to the nation said, “The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith.
“Here let us STOP. Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course…. Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand on foreign ground? Why by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or caprice. Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world:”
Our Congress ignored Washington’s advice and the U.S. joined the World Trade Organization in 1995 and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. Since 1994 we have lost nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Unaccountable judges in NAFTA tribunals have awarded $360 million from taxpayers to foreign firms. In 1993 we had a 1.66 Billion trade surplus with Mexico and since 2010 we have been running 60 Billion annual trade deficits, because Chrysler, Ford, GM and other companies have transferred production plants to Mexico. In 1993 our annual trade deficit with Canada was 10.7 Billion and by 2005 it had risen to 78.4 Billion. The Federal government’s own program known as Trade Adjustment Assistance had by 2010 certified over 720,000 jobs lost in America due to NAFTA.
Under NAFTA and WTO our food imports have doubled, while federal inspection dropped to 0.6 percent. Foreign tainted food and products have become widespread, especially from WTO partner China. As we have found out the hard way free trade is not free at all and it certainly is not fair trade. In fact Lewis Lloyd in his book “Tariffs: The Case for Protection” written in 1955 listed eight conditions that must be met to truly have free trade. Among them were a single monetary system, uniform business laws, uniform wage rates, maximum labor mobility (no immigration laws) and lastly you must have world government.
Karl Marx the author of the Communist Manifesto said, “Free trade breaks up old nationalities… In a word, the free trade system ‘hastens’ social revolution”. Marx felt that free trade and social revolution were essential steps in breaking down the old social order based on Biblical principles so that his goal of world government could be achieved. In 1974 a Council on Foreign Relations member penned an article for the CFR journal Foreign Affairs entitled “The hard road to World Order.” He said since hopes for instant world government have proven illusory, the best hope for building the house of world order lay in a long range “end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece”. This could best be done, he noted, on an ad hoc basis with treaties and international “arrangements” on environment, trade and security.
With NAFTA as a stepping stone, North American leaders lead by President Bush in 2005 signed the Security and Prosperity Partnership whose goal would be to integrate Mexico, Canada and the U.S. into one nation, erasing national borders and American independence. Grassroots organizations banded together to expose their plans and their effort to create a North American Union much like the European Union has been stopped at least for now.
Having seen the bad economic results from NAFTA and it’s eroding of our national sovereignty, you would think that Congress would be withdrawing us from this “free trade agreement”. Instead many in Congress are promoting two more free trade agreements. President Obama has asked Congress for “fast track” Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) so that he can negotiate and sign these two trade partnership agreements, one with eleven Pacific Rim nations known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) and another with the European Union known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIO).
On January 7, 2015, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged to move full speed ahead to grant the President fast track authority. McConnell told reporters “It’s an enormous grant of power, obviously, from a Republican Congress to a Democratic President, but that’s how much we believe in trade as an important part of America’s economy.” McConnell knows full well that only 5 out of 29 chapters in the TPP agreement have to do with trade. The other 24 will impose a myriad of laws and regulations onto businesses and citizens enforced by unaccountable international governmental bodies. He also knows that the TTIP will tie us into the EU which would like nothing more than to have access to U.S, taxpayers’ dollars to bail out its failing economy.
If these “partnerships” are approved by Congress it will just be a matter of time before we hear members of Congress promoting a Trans-Pacific Union and the U.S. becoming a full member of the EU. We all need to alert our friends and neighbors about the need to contact our Congressmen and Senators and insist that they do everything in their power to stop the TTP and the TTIP.
Senator Orrin Hatch predicted that legislation introducing a TPA bill could come up as soon as mid-April. My Congressman Cathy McMorris Rodgers in a recent letter has endorsed the TPA saying it will provide jobs and economic stability to eastern Washington as well as strengthening our strategic alliances. She is following the Republican Party line and we need to convince her to follow Washington’s advice to stay clear of permanent alliances or we may very well end up losing our national independence and our individual freedoms much like the nations of Europe have.
Most of the information in this article came from flyers and reprints from the New American magazine as well as the book International Merger by Foreign Entanglements written by Arthur Thompson. These and other resources that can be used to educate yourself, your friends and especially your Congressmen and Senators can be found at jbs.org.
