Q: What area of international policy would you change immediately? A: Our entry into the WTO. I think we gave away a portion of our sovereignty that we should never have surrendered. It violates the fundamental principle of our way of life: no
legislation without representation. I’m not interested in protectionism or withdrawal. But folks ought to be paying a premium price to enter this market, or else giving us something concrete in return that’s of tangible benefit to the American people.
Source: GOP Debate on the Larry King Show
Feb 15, 2000
Out of WTO: no legislation without representation
KEYES [to Forbes]: I’m very concerned with the surrender of America’s national sovereignty. Joining the WTO subjects the American people directly to decisions that will be applied without the intervention of elected representatives.
Would you join me in a pledge, to withdraw from the WTO?
FORBES: If the WTO can’t get its act together, let it stay on the side & we take direct action in reducing trade barriers with our partners starting with the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement,
with Ireland & Britain. And we should do the same thing with Australia & other countries in the Pacific Rim. That way we can stop this discrimination against our products and the WTO can go its own way.
KEYES: [The WTO] violates the constitutional
principle of no legislation without representation. Will you withdraw us from this unrepresentative body?
FORBES. I’m not going to withdraw us from that body. it’s supposed to be there to help reduce barriers. If it doesn’t, then we bid it goodbye.
Source: (X-ref from Keyes) GOP Debate in Manchester NH
Jan 26, 2000
Separate naturalization (legal) from border patrols
Keyes supports the following principles concerning immigration:
Increase the immigration quota for computer & technology workers
Establish English as the official national language
Separate the INS into two bureaus: one for naturalization
and one for border patrol
Keyes says, “Continuing America’s generous reception of new citizens from all the peoples of mankind will require that we show an enlightened resolve to form these new Americans in our heritage of ordered liberty.”
Source: Vote-Smart.org 2000 NPAT
Jan 13, 2000
Banks and American clout should help farmers
Q: What will you do as president to help farmers get sufficient pay for their work? A: We have to give our farmers access to the kind of capital that they need. We need to get out of this collective business of bargaining and sit down and make these
countries understand. If they want access to our markets, they’re going to have to give us an exchange, something that’s of equal value. And the collectivist approach we’ve been taking hasn’t produced that result.
Source: Republican debate in West Columbia, South Carolina
Jan 7, 2000
WTO allows dictators to decide our future - US out
Everybody else is busy arguing about whether China should be in the WTO. I look at an organization that is unrepresentative, elected by no one, where dictators and tyrants have the same right to send representatives to make substantive decisions that
will affect our jobs & livelihood in a fashion totally contrary to our constitution. The question isn’t whether China should belong to the WTO. The question is whether the US should belong to an organization that violates our constitutional principles.
Source: Des Moines Iowa GOP Debate
Dec 13, 1999
WTO is not representative; hence unconstitutional
KEYES [to Bauer]: The WTO is an unrepresentative body based on an illegitimate principle of government; it is not a body that contains entities that are based upon consent. And yet it could make decisions that affect our lives & jobs. Our Constitution
says that our representative bodies are supposed to be composed of states based on republican forms of government-consent not dictatorship. How can you support our membership in the WTO without violating our constitutional liberties?
BAUER: I don’t
like bureaucrats-they are out of the reach of the people. I don’t like HMO bureaucrats; I don’t like Washington bureaucrats that are trying to run the schools. And I don’t like WTO bureaucrats either. I think that when decisions are made that affect the
way we live, that affect our jobs, those decisions ought to be made by people that we can reach, so if we don’t like what they’ve decided, we can get rid of them. And I believe that in the case of the WTO, it’s a system out of control.
Source: (cross-ref. to Bauer) Phoenix Arizona GOP Debate
Dec 7, 1999
Tariffs make foreigners share burden of US government
The income tax should be replaced [by] taxes on things we buy and that we pay only when we decide to buy them. By restoring tariffs and duties to their proper role we will also make foreign populations who benefit from access to the US market share the
burden of supporting the governmental system that guarantees its existence.
Source: HUMAN EVENTS: The National Conservative Weekly, front page
Apr 17, 1998
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