From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: In GATT They Trust
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 06:22:04 GMT

In GATT They Trust


The following article was taken from the _Covert Action_ Spring 1992
[special issue dedicated to  Native people's rights/struggles]
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Terry Allen is co-editor of CAIB [CovertAction Information Bulletin] 
and a journalist who has worked in the U.S. and abroad. 
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For more information about CovertAction Information Bulletin and
subscription information, please see bottom or email Rich Winkel at
rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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                 I n   G A T T   T h e y   T r u s t 
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		      By Terry Allen (pp 60-65)
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"This article would not have been possible without the generous 
assistance of Mark Ritchie of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade 
Policy.  His research and analytical support were invaluable. 
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When Christopher Columbus left Spain, he was essentially on a trading 
mission seeking a cheaper and faster route to Asia and a way to boost 
the profits of the wealthy businesses and families who financed this 
expedition.  After mistakenly bumping into North America, he quickly 
realized the best way to reap the wealth.  North and South America, he 
[typo] had a wide range of natural resources, most of which were 
easily extracted, cutivated, bartered for, or simply stolen.  Any 
practical strategy of profit maximization required a long-term 
presence, and that meant colonizing the "New World." 

In Columbus' fresh wake, glittering with the lure of gold, followed 
ambitious European merchants and manafacturers who also recognized the 
links whic bound trade, colonization, and profit.  In their wake, 
slicked with Indian blood, came the colonists. 

A few centuries later, in the colonies that were to become the United 
States, the need to control domestic and international trade remained 
paramount concern.  From the beginning, many of the most important and 
controversial political debates centered around such trade-related 
questions as tariffs, duties, and regulation of interstate commerce. 
What was the Boston Tea Party if not a fight over trade regulations 
and Tariffs? 

In the original Constitution, Congress was given ultimate authority 
over the two most important elements of trade policy: the regulation 
of commerce between the U.S.  and other countries. 

For two centuries that power, along with the power to conduct war, 
have been increasingly removed from the Congressional hands and 
transferred to Executive grip.  Regulating terms of trade has proven a 
useful presidential tool for tinkering with the domestic economy.  It 
also functions effectively to bulldoze and playing field on which the 
U.S.  meets not onlly its military and economic rivals, but also its 
client states-those Third World countries previously bound to Europe 
by formal colonial ties and now equally chained to the U.S.  by dept 
[typo] and dependence. 

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