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Article Last Updated: Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 3:13:49 PM MST
Journal Advocate
Crazier than you thought
By JIM HIGHTOWER, Syndicated columnist
In case you thought that corporate globalization can't get any globalonier, look at what happens when mad cow disease meets NAFTA.
You might recall the unpleasant news several months ago that bovine spongiform encephalopathy - mad cow disease, to you - had sprung up in Alberta, Canada, and that some of the possibly infected cattle had been sold and shipped into the United States.
The prospect of mad cow burgers in our market was enough to prompt even the corporate-loving, regulation-hating Bushites to gag, so they banned the importation of Canadian beef and cattle, shutting down our border for awhile to protect public health.
You don't need to be Upton Sinclair to see that this was a prudent action, and surely our nation (or any country) has the sovereign right to close its own borders to protect its national interests, right? Well, once upon a time that certainly was right, but now we live under insidious global trade scams like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that allow corporate interests to usurp our sovereignty.
Thus, Canadian cattle interests are now asserting that they lost money due to our Mad Cow border closure and that - under NAFTA - they are entitled to be compensated for their loss of profit by you and me. Impossible as it sounds, NAFTA does, indeed, authorize foreign investors to sue us taxpayers for profit losses, something even our own companies have no right to do
It's no small sum that the Canadian interests are demanding from us - at least $325 million. Even wackier, their case does not go to our courts or Congress, but to a private tribunal made up of corporate trade lawyers, including at least one that the Canadians will choose. This un-democratic tribunal will meet in secret, and its ruling is binding on the government of the once-sovereign United States of America.
It's not just cows that've gone mad, but also the politicians who've sold our sovereignty to corporations.
Journal Advocate
Crazier than you thought
By JIM HIGHTOWER, Syndicated columnist
In case you thought that corporate globalization can't get any globalonier, look at what happens when mad cow disease meets NAFTA.
You might recall the unpleasant news several months ago that bovine spongiform encephalopathy - mad cow disease, to you - had sprung up in Alberta, Canada, and that some of the possibly infected cattle had been sold and shipped into the United States.
The prospect of mad cow burgers in our market was enough to prompt even the corporate-loving, regulation-hating Bushites to gag, so they banned the importation of Canadian beef and cattle, shutting down our border for awhile to protect public health.
You don't need to be Upton Sinclair to see that this was a prudent action, and surely our nation (or any country) has the sovereign right to close its own borders to protect its national interests, right? Well, once upon a time that certainly was right, but now we live under insidious global trade scams like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that allow corporate interests to usurp our sovereignty.
Thus, Canadian cattle interests are now asserting that they lost money due to our Mad Cow border closure and that - under NAFTA - they are entitled to be compensated for their loss of profit by you and me. Impossible as it sounds, NAFTA does, indeed, authorize foreign investors to sue us taxpayers for profit losses, something even our own companies have no right to do
It's no small sum that the Canadian interests are demanding from us - at least $325 million. Even wackier, their case does not go to our courts or Congress, but to a private tribunal made up of corporate trade lawyers, including at least one that the Canadians will choose. This un-democratic tribunal will meet in secret, and its ruling is binding on the government of the once-sovereign United States of America.
It's not just cows that've gone mad, but also the politicians who've sold our sovereignty to corporations.
