2000 Ron Paul 55:1
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself
the balance of my time.
2000 Ron Paul 55:2
“Peace, commerce and honest friendship
with all nations, entangling alliances
with none, I deem one of the essential
principles of our government
and consequently one of those which
ought to shape its administration.”
Thomas Jefferson.
2000 Ron Paul 55:3
Thomas Jefferson, I am sure, would
be aghast at this WTO trade agreement.
It is out of the hands of the Congress.
It is put into the hands of
unelected bureaucrats at the WTO. I
would venture to guess even the Hamiltonians
would be a bit upset with what
we do with trade today. I am pro-trade.
I have voted consistently to trade with
other nations, with lowering tariffs.
But I do not support managed trade by
international bureaucrats. I do not
support subsidized trade. Huge corporations
in this country like the WTO because
they have political clout with it.
They like it because they have an edge
on their competitors. They can tie
their competitors up in court. And
they can beat them at it because not
everybody has access. One has to be a
monied interest to have influence at
the World Trade Organization.
2000 Ron Paul 55:4
Earlier today I predicted that we
would win this debate. There is no
doubt in my mind that we and the
American people have won this debate.
We will not win the votes, but we will
do well. But we have won the debate
because we speak for the truth and we
speak for the Constitution and we
speak for the American people. That is
why we have won this debate. It is true
there are a lot of complaints about the
WTO from those who endorse it. I
think the suggestion from the gentleman
from Oregon is a good suggestion.
Those who are uncomfortable
with the WTO and they do not want to
rubber-stamp it, and they do not think
it is quite appropriate to vote “yes” on
this resolution, vote “present.” Send a
message. They deserve to hear the message.
We have no other way of speaking
out. Every 5 years, we get a chance to
get out of the WTO—that’s it.
2000 Ron Paul 55:5
We cannot control the WTO. None of
us here in the Congress has anything to
say. You have to have a unanimous
vote with WTO to change policy. Our
vote is equal to all the 134 other countries;
and, therefore, we have very little
to say here in the U.S. Congress.
2000 Ron Paul 55:6
Why is it that I have allies on the
other side of the aisle where we may
well disagree on the specifics of labor
law and environmental law. We agree
that the American people have elected
us, we have taken an oath of office to
obey the Constitution, that we have a
responsibility to them and we should
decide what the labor law ought to be,
we should decide what the environmental
law should be, we should decide
what the tax law should be. That is
why we have an alliance.
2000 Ron Paul 55:7
But let me remind my colleagues, the
American people are getting frustrated.
They feel this sense of rejection
and this loss of control. Why bother
coming to us? We do not have control
of the WTO and they feel like they are
being hurt. This is the reason we are
seeing demonstrations. They say if we
did not have the WTO we would have
anarchy? I predict chaos. I predict
eventual chaos from WTO mismanagement.
The trade agreement is unmanageable.
They would like to do it in secrecy,
and they like to wheel and deal;
but it is unmanageable.
2000 Ron Paul 55:8
Let me say there is another reason
why we expect chaos in the economy
and in trade. It has to do with the
trade imbalances. Today we are at
record highs. The current account deficit
hit another record yesterday. It is
4.5 percent of the GDP, and it is significant.
But unfortunately the WTO can
do nothing about that because that is a
currency problem. It too causes chaos.
Yet there will be an attempt by the
WTO to share the problem of imbalances.
Just think of how NAFTA came
to the rescue of the Mexican peso immediately
after NAFTA was approved;
a $50 billion rescue for the politicians
and the bankers who loaned money to
Mexico.
2000 Ron Paul 55:9
Quite frankly, I have a suspicion that
when the Chinese currency fails, that
will be one of the things that we will
do. China will be our trading partner.
They are in the family of countries, so
therefore we will bail out their currency.
That is what I suspect will happen.
Why else would the Chinese put up
with the nonsense that we pass out
about what we are going to do, investigate
them and tell them how to write
their laws? They have no intention of
doing that. I think they are anxious to
be with WTO because they may well
see a need for their currency to be supported
by our currency, which would be
a tax on the American people.
2000 Ron Paul 55:10
This is a sovereignty issue. We do not
have the authority in the U.S. House of
Representatives to give our authority
to the President. We do not have the
authority and we should never permit
the President to issue these executive
orders the way he does, but this is
going one step further. We have delivered
this sovereignty power to an
unelected bunch of bureaucrats at the
WTO.
