Cliff Stearns: “last year, after a long and passionate debate, the United States joined the World Trade Organization. The WTO, as it is…”

“last year, after a long and passionate debate, the United States joined the World Trade Organization. The WTO, as it is known, is an international body based in Geneva with 120 nation members. In simple terms, the WTO is the police force of international commerce and trade, a mechanism for enforcement of the world's trade laws. Supporters of the WTO promoted entry as a means toward a fair and free trade policy. It was, they argued, a way for the United States to knock down other nation's protectionist trade barriers. Opponents, who came from all political spectrums, foresaw a different world. Citizen's groups predicted a situation where other countries would pressure the WTO into weakening America's world-leading environmental, health, and safety laws. Economists warned that the WTO would penalize the forward-looking United States to the advantage of the mercantilist nations of East Asia and of the European Union. Nationalists were terrified of an organization that held the United States as equal to the other 120 member nations, for we would have no veto power, despite our obvious stature. Many of us in Congress worked diligently to defeat the ill-advised entry into this Organization. I believed then, and still maintain, that our sovereignty is endangered by our membership in the WTO. Simply put, we are not equal to other nations.…”