Canada Too Willing To Pay The Washington Tribute Tax

As a minister of the Crown, Emerson is completely oblivious to the real capital Canada’s softwood producers have invested. If this agreement is passed they will be laying off workers. The industry will in fact be on a quota system and the US will be dictating Canadian forest policy. All of which is a long way from free trade. The softwood agreement is a stunning example of just how dysfunctional NAFTA is, and it is a very large component part of the WTT. In her book, "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World One Economy at a Time", US international policy analyst Antonia Juhasz recounts the MMT scandal (or at least what should have been a scandal) of 1997 involving the Chretien government: “For example a US corporation used NAFTA’s National Treatment and Foreign Investment provision to force the Canadian government to reverse a ban on the gasoline additive MMT, a known carcinogen. MMT is banned in Europe and California. In 1997 the Canadian parliament passed its own ban of MMT (which is made in the US and sold in Canada) because it was proven to pollute ground water and was, in the words of the Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien an “insidious neurotoxin.” Virginia’s Ethyl Corporation, the producer of Canada’s MMT, first tried to stop the legislation in the Canadian parliament. When it was unsuccessful it turned to the NAFTA, where it launched a $250 million suit. Ethyl argued that it should be reimbursed for future profits it would have earned from the sale and that the mere discussion of the ban in the Canadian Parliament damaged Ethyl’s “good name” and therefore its profitability. Ethyl demanded compensation or the elimination of the law.” Like the US in the softwood lumber agreement, Ethyl was left laughing all the way to the bank: “Because the Canadian government believed it would lose the case at a NAFTA tribunal, it reversed the ban, paid Ethyl $13 million, and wrote the company a formal letter of apology.” This is analogous to being fired by your employer, suing for defamation of character, pursuing damages for loss of future income, making a claim for reinstatement-and being awarded all of the above with a formal letter of apology to boot! Wouldn’t it be a perfect world if we as individuals had these rights and privileges? But only under NAFTA do corporations have such a blessed existence. In 1972, then NDP leader David Lewis coined the term “corporate welfare bums” out of concern for the privileged and heavily subsidized position large corporations hold in the Canadian economy. If he got to read the terms of the NAFTA his language would no doubt be unprintable. John Foster Dulles, US Secretary of State (1953-1959) observed that it was not necessary to conquer a country militarily- simply get control of its economy. His successors have acted on this wisdom using “free trade” agreements as the means of invasion. Under the Bush administration though unwilling potential “free trade” clients are subject to regime change as the US military becomes the enforcer- Iraq for example. Juhasz documents lucidly in her book how country after country has suffered “free trade” American style. Third world and Second world countries are especially easy pickings for the US as in order to qualify for much needed development loans from the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank they must first agree to some blackmail in the form of deregulating and privatizing their economies such that multinational corporations can move in and operate freely, exploiting that nation’s economy as they see fit. These free trade agreements quite simply give the fox the keys to the hen house. Her book is laden example after example of national economies that have been devastated by this corrupted and perverse form of free trade. She also profiles how the US is working to establish a Middle Eastern Free Trade Area(MEFTA). This would bring all these countries under the economic and political control of the US (Israel and the US already have a bilateral free trade agreement). Iran resists the US and MEFTA and this resistance is significant as it is the dominant regional power. It is also sitting on the world’s single richest remaining reserve of oil which the US wants to control. So as with Iraq the issue is oil. Weapons of mass destruction(in Iran’s case nuclear which it doesn’t have), and the spread of democracy are really the propagandists’ deceptions. The US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and is permanent for the foreseeable future and these countries will exist only as occupied territories. The Canadian government is being dishonest with Canadians when it says our commitment to Afghanistan is from three to five years. It will assuredly be much longer. There is every indication the rape of Lebanon could well be a prelude to a major US attack on Iran. In attacking Lebanon, Israel was acting as a US proxy and in collaboration with the US. The US vetoed an early ceasefire to ensure maximum destruction while at the same time airlifting a steady supply of ammunition and smart bombs to Israeli forces. For the US the attack on Lebanon was an important precursor as an opportunity to test Iran’s response, strategies and available weaponry. It is an interesting historical irony that the US has used both the Iraqi military led by Sadaam Hussein and now Israeli forces as proxys in its obsession to subdue Iran. Where Canada is overly willing to pay the WTT, Iran refuses to pay. Where the Harper government in its stupefied kowtowing to US foreign policy debates whether to send troops to Lebanon it may well be coming an accessory(along with many other Western countries) to a much larger and more bloody conflict with its silent complicity. The WTT is becoming an ominous and pestilent global phenomena. But mean while back on the home front; not content with Deep Integration as incorporated in the NAFTA our peerless Ottawa oligarchs are secretly concocting NAFTA Plus, aka Really Deep Integration, and a really really ballistic WTT. You might be so bold as to write your MP and express your concerns regarding the WTT. Your MP though will most assuredly write back and advise (carefully avoiding any inference that you might be some crazy Jane from Moose Mountain Saskatcheeewann) that there is no act of Parliament that enshrines a Washington Tribute Tax and you must be mistaken or somehow misinformed. At which point of course you must write back and explain the WTT to him or her (remembering patience is a virtue) in all its disguises and permutations. You might explain that you cannot afford ballistic taxes or ballistic missiles- especially ones that constantly wander off course. Also explain that Deep Integration is a costly taxcentric undertaking and inappropriate behavior for Ottawa oligarchs. Really Deep Integration becomes an unspeakable obscenity. You could also explain that you have great expectations for this country. Unless they start having some wakeful moments and earn their keep, the WTT is going to become as essentially Canadian as Hockey Night in Canada. The WTT has yet another endearing aspect. As Ottawa oligarchs retreat from governance and the tax goes ballistic, they become redundant--just charlatans wallowing in political absurdities and mere pretensions of power. [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 30, 2006]