Stop the NAFTA Redo: Stop Trade Promotion Authority Extension

When Congress passed and granted Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to then-President Barack Obama in 2015, it included an expiration date of June 30, 2018. The expiration is automatic, unless President Trump requests an extension, which would extend TPA to July 1, 2021, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Congress should reassert its constitutional authority, under Article I, Section 8, Clause 3, of regulating commerce with foreign nations by ending TPA. All it will take to end TPA is for the majority of one legislative chamber of Congress (either the House or Senate) to pass an extension disapproval resolution.

Without TPA, a newly renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would likely not pass out of Congress. Instead, it would be subject to debate, the possibility of amendments in both House and Senate, and filibuster in the Senate (requiring 60 votes to end a filibuster and proceed).

Stopping congressional approval of a renegotiated NAFTA would set the stage for influencing Congress to get the U.S. completely out of NAFTA. There would be no better deal for the American people and our national sovereignty than U.S. withdrawal from the disastrous NAFTA treaty.

Many of you can recall that back in 1993 when the NAFTA agreement was being considered by Congress, Henry Kissinger wrote an article for the Los Angeles Times entitled "With NAFTA, U.S. Finally Creates a New World Order." That title alone reveals why we say that NAFTA is not about jobs, but about our freedom and independence. In this article Kissinger referred to NAFTA as "the most creative step toward a new world order taken by any group of countries since the end of the Cold War" and stated further that it "is not a conventional trade agreement, but the architecture of a new international system."

The NAFTA agreement represents the foundation of the eventual North American Union, a supranational governmental entity that would be comprised of the three formerly sovereign nations, the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For more information about NAFTA and why we should pull out, click on the image on the left to visit our "Get US out! of NAFTA" action project page at JBS.org.

Here are 6 reasons why either the House or Senate should pass a TPA extension disapproval resolution (based on William F. Jasper's article entitled, "7 Reasons Why Trade Promotion Authority/Fast Track Must Be Defeated," published on TheNewAmerican.com, on June 5, 2015, when the current TPA was being considered by Congress):

1. TPA is essential to passage of the very dangerous NAFTA, the forerunner to an EU-like North American Union (NAU), as well as to the potential passage of other sovereignty-killing "free trade" agreements like TTIP, which according to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross the U.S. is "still open to."
2. TPA is an unconscionable abdication of constitutional responsibility by Congress.
3. TPA not only hands Trump unconstitutional powers given to Obama, it potentially gives them to his successor as well.
4. TPA is another giant step in the unconstitutional transfer of congressional authority to the president.
5. TPA also challenges the Constitution by violating the requirement that treaties be ratified by a super-majority vote of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate.
6. The TPA will speed the transfer of immense power to federal and international judges to eviscerate the Constitution; to strike down federal, state, and local laws; and to legislate from the bench.

Please phone your representative (202-225-3121) and senators (202-224-3121), tell them or someone on the staff a few of the above 6 reasons why to disapprove extending TPA and ask them to sponsor and ultimately pass an extension disapproval resolution for TPA.

Then, send an email to your representative and senators with the same message for additional impact.

Thanks.

Your Friends at The John Birch Society

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