Marx on free trade

[Max Sawicky]

>Doug, while you have a point here -- Certainly JfJ was a landmark
success -- the real threat of NAFTA et al is not lowering of tariffs (i.e.,
conventional free trade) but the supranational bodies that can take actions
overriding national law.  I suspect that these powers represent the real
threat of trade
agreements. >

This is Buchananoid, or maybe Naderite.  Or maybe both.  You can't have
binding international labor standards, or any other kind, without some kind
of authority which supercedes national government.  A standard without an
enforcement mechanism is merely voluntary.

"Sovereignty" is a straw man.  If a nation enters into an agreement to
accede to supra-national authority in certain areas, it has not lost its
sovereignty.  It can always opt out, albeit at the possible cost of
suffering consequences, though this is true with or without any such
agreements.

mbs