The American people are not being told that the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas is much more than a simple trade pact.

The architects of the FTAA intend that it broaden and deepen NAFTA. Instead of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, which comprise NAFTA, the FTAA would broaden NAFTA by encompassing all the 34 nations of the western hemisphere, with the current exception of Cuba. It would deepen NAFTA by involving the FTAA in an ever-increasing number of functions that are properly the private domain of national governments. Even now, NAFTA tribunals are claiming the authority, approved 10 years ago by Congress, to overturn the decisions of U.S. courts.

In 1993, Henry Kissinger lobbied for NAFTA by noting that NAFTA “is not a conventional trade agreement, but the architecture of a new international system.” The FTAA would be a further expansion of that architecture, with a shifting of control of government’s functions to unelected hemispheric bureaucrats.

The appeal to “free trade” in the name chosen for this latest power grab is a blatant deception. Trade under the FTAA would be highly regulated by a socialist bureaucracy, even more so than with NAFTA.

Americans should appeal to their representatives and senators to reject any agreement to expand NAFTA into an FTAA. Current plans are to complete the hemispheric agreement by January and then present it to Congress. For more information, check out www.stoptheftaa.org.

Edwin Storm

Enumclaw