Sovereignty

There’s a lot of talk about sovereignty these days, and with good reason. The fundamental question we all should be asking ourselves is: “Can a country maintain political sovereignty without economic sovereignty?”

When a country enters into free trade agreements, especially more global ones like GATT (as opposed to more regional ones like NAFTA) they are then operating under a supranational organization that supersedes their sovereign right to decide who to trade with and how that trade will be organized. Most citizens have no idea what it will mean when they enter into trade agreements with other countries and regions, including such things as manufacturing jobs and capital investment moving off shore, higher unemployment, a decrease in real wages, etc… It could not be otherwise, and the politicians and corporations who campaigned for and signed these agreements into reality were well aware of this.

For more information I recommend going to YouTube and listening to Sir James Goldsmith’s U.S. Senate speech on November 15th, 1994.