Letter: Free trade killing basic industries

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2003 | 9:11 a.m.

Imagine an America of closed factories, shuttered offices, and millions of unemployed blue-collar and white-collar workers. Imagine a United States of America that is no longer the leader in any major industrial or technological sector -- a USA that is dangerously dependent on foreign suppliers for many of its critical military supplies and weapons components. Imagine an America that depends on foreign producers not only for virtually all consumer goods but even for basic foodstuffs.

Imagine an America that is no longer a land of optimism and opportunity for our younger generations because it has ceased to be competitive globally and has regulated jobs, careers and entrepreneurial activities into oblivion. Imagine a rusting and decrepit America that can no longer economically support its aging population. Imagine a dependent America with supplies of food, oil and other essentials interrupted by war or terrorism. Imagine regular electrical blackouts and brownouts similar to those that afflict developing countries.

Why is this becoming a reality? America is dying, because our basic resource industries, suffering from decades of regulatory overkill and nearly a decade of added burdens from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), are being targeted for more intensive foreign penetration and regulation under the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and other so-called "free trade" agreements.

FRANK M. PELTESON