THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE

Sir James Goldsmith, in recent U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearings pleaded with the members of the committee to "think long and hard" about the GATT, urging them to not rush into a vote this year. According to the rules of the Uruguay Round, they don't have to vote until June, '95. Sir James urged the U.S. Senators, saying:

"Think again… one thing I pray you do. This is the single most important economic act the Western world has ever taken… it will change the life of every American."

Sir James went on to explain to the U.S. Senators that the job of the U.S. Congress is to establish an economic environment in America that creates employment, stability, prosperity and contentment. He said that the sad part of it all is that it is expected to go through without a debate and with the majority of the American people not even knowing what it is about.

According to Sir James, the alternative to GATT, if the World Policy Makers really want to help the developing countries, they could keep open the free flow of technology and money to those other countries. Any corporation wanting to do business in a foreign country could simply become a part of that country's community… producing and selling the goods within its borders.

Conceivably, any corporation could set up businesses in as many countries as they wish, but in order to export into America or other developed countries, they would simply be forced to pay high enough tariffs to discourage exporting and thereby save jobs for the peoples in the developed countries.

Then, of course, in order for the people in those developing countries to become "customers" of the corporation, they must be paid wages high enough to have the purchasing power. This plan would truly raise the living standards of the people in third-world countries. It would force the businesses to pay more than 25 cents an hour for its workers and it will stop the escalating destruction of America.

Sir James suggested we throw out all of this flawed "economic theory" and talk in hard, cold, straight forward, common-sensible terms. Setting a scenario, he asked the U.S. Senators:

"If you were a business owner or CEO and your primary job is to create profits; if you could set up business anywhere in the world you wanted and could sell your products anywhere you wanted, at whatever price you wanted, without tariffs; if you could go to Indonesia and hire 47 Indonesians at the cost of hiring one American, sell your products back to Americans without lowering your prices [as Nike did] where would you go?"

Under this new GATT we're bringing into our market 4 billion people who are looking for jobs and will work for a mere fraction of the wages at which Americans can afford to work. These people had previously been isolated from the world market because of Communism or Socialism and will totally change the face of our world.

Sir James says this isn't about consumerism, it's about jobs and it will cost millions of jobs to Americans.

Using dollar amounts to judge trade balances is also flawed, as he points out that America could export $10 billion in technological goods which represent only 1,000 jobs for Americans; import $10 billion in manufactured goods from another country which produced tens of thousands of jobs for the workers who produced the goods and call it "balanced trade". And all the profits continue to go to the trans-national companies, not into the economy of that producing country nor to the people working at meager wages.