Freedom of transit as a principle in international law is derived from the access to the Sea for landlocked countries. Goods, means of transports, and persons, should enjoy freedom of transit in order to have access to the Sea. Access to and from the Sea and passage rights across the territories of states have been the subject of various international conferences and several international conventions which form the basis for the principle of freedom of transit; commencing with the Barcelona Statute on freedom of transit (1921), Article V of the GATT 1947, the New York Convention on Transit Trade of Landlocked Countries (1965), and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) (1982). Source UNCTAD Freedom of Transit: Obligations and Implications of Article V of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. UNCTAD/LDC/MISC. 84, 15 August 2002.
The Vatican – Maritime Access – Precedent for inland ports
“Even though Vatican City has no direct access to the sea, by virtue of the Barcelona Declaration of 1921, it is allowed to sail its own vessels flying the papal flag.” Source: Vatican State website
In the previous article, it was found that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established to continue negotiations on the Havana Charter defining an International Trade Organization that was initiated at the Bretton Woods Conference in the early 1940s. The purpose of the Bretton Woods Conference was to define the economic triad for international commerce. The triad included labor, finance and trade facilitation. The output of Bretton Woods was the Generalized Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). The sections of the agreement for Finance and Labor were accepted by the U.S. Senate. The Havana Charter establishing an international trade regime was rejected due to concerns for national sovereignty.
The negotiations for the establishment of the World Trade Organization as defined in the Marrakesh Agreement were completed in 1994. U.S. International Trade Administration, Trade Guide: Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization
In 1995, the negotiations and the World Trade Organization was established by Marrakesh Agreement included in U.S. law in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. H.R. 5110, Public Law 103-465, December 8, 1994.
The foundational text of the WTO was the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) negotiated at Bretton Woods in the early 1940’s, updated and expanded at the close of the Uruguay Round of trade conferences to be the Generalized Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
In the text of the GATT, See Article V – Freedom of Transit.
UNCTAD Trust Fund for Trade Facilitation Negotiations, Technical Note 8, Freedom of Transit and Regional Transit Arrangements.
1921 – Barcelona Statute on Freedom of Transit (under the League of Nations)
UNCTAD Analysis, August 15, 2002, UNCTAD/LDC/MISC. 84, Freedom of Transit: Obligations and Implications of Article V of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
Preparatory Committee of the International Conference on Trade and Employment
Committee II
Draft Report of the Technical Sub-Committee
E/PC/T/C.II/54
16 November 1946
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
L/4306/Add.1
14 April 1976
Avalon history, text, Treaty of Versailles
League of Nations – background history of world organization
Merchants of Peace Making War on Nation-States
In 2014, the following image was found in the history section of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). It indicates that President George Bush had a meeting at the White House with the leadership of the ICC on June 21, 1990. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, this meeting is not listed in the American Presidency Project archive of the University of Santa Barbara.
The World is a Business Mr. Beale
On June 27, 1990, President George Bush announced the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative at a White House event.
The three pillars of our new initiative are trade, investment, and debt. To expand trade, I propose that we begin the process of creating a hemispherewide free trade zone; to increase investment, that we adopt measures to create a new flow of capital into the region; and to further ease the burden of debt, a new approach to debt in the region with important benefits for our environment.
First, as we enter the final months of the current Uruguay round of the world trade talks, I pledge close cooperation with the nations of this hemisphere.
Second, we must build on the trend we see toward free markets and make our ultimate aim a free trade system that links all of the Americas: North, Central, and South. And we look forward to the day when not only are the Americas the first fully free, democratic hemisphere but when all are equal partners in a free trade zone stretching from the port of Anchorage to the Tierra del Fuego.
Note: Debt-for-Nature – Debt-for-Equity Swaps, forests and the Amazon
The G7 Summit was held in Houston, Texas that year from July 8-11, 1990.
Rose Garden Agreement, June 19, 1991, Remarks by President Bush and President Collor of Brazil on Signing an Enterprise for the Americas Initiative Multilateral Trade Agreement
The authorization and funding for international zones in the interior of the United States was the mechanism to facilitate the slow and steady invasion of our country. The zones were given various names in U.S. law in correspondence to the federal agency that was providing grant funding for them: intermodal commerce zones, enterprise zones, empowerment zones, hubzones, workforce development zones, etc.
The New World Order President
As everybody knows by now that President George Bush is the New World Order President. He made the announcement at a joint session of Congress on September 11, 1990. Not many understood what he was talking about – including myself.
A new partnership of nations has begun. . . Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a new world order — can emerge: a new era — freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony. A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavor. Today that new world is struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one we’ve known. A world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle. A world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice.
Freedom of Transit is only one aspect of the strategy to dismantle our country – turning it into merely international territory under the United Nations system of regions. ECLAC was the first region chartered under the UN system (1948). The strategy for stitching the countries of the Americas into a “hemisphere-wide free trade area” was the Free Trade Agreement with Canada (1987-1988) and the La Paz Treaty with Mexico (1983) creating an international zone – port jurisdiction going from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean with the zone being under the management of the Environmental Protection Agency and with the U.S. State Department having the highest authority because it was a treaty that created the zone. (See pdf page 187 – Environmental Cooperation).
Signed at La Paz August 14, 1983.
Entered into force February 16, 1984.
35 UST 2916; TIAS 10827; 1352 UNTS 67
Prior Research
How U.S. Territory Became A Land Bridge Between Two Bodies of Water (pdf)
Losing Our Sovereignty (Simplified version of the Land Bridge Report above)
Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, WH Press Release January 17, 1994, Chicago.
Related Reading:
Singapore Journal of International & Comparative Law, 2003 7 pp 201-235, Kishor Uprety, From Barcelona to Montego Bay and Thereafter: A Search for Landlocked States’ Rights to Trade through Access to the Sea — A Retrospective Review,
Paper on Freedom of Transit, Arushi M. Meht
Wilson Center, Trade Policy in Crisis
NAFTA: Will it ever have an EU profile? 2007
Richard Feinberg, University of California on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), Integrating the Americas, IGCC website and history section (read it).
Overview of the WTO and Trips (note Doha – Public Health
Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, November 20, 2001, WT/MIN(01)/DEC, 2
10 Comments
Carol
Vicki, check out
3/15, 2022, Biden signed the FY 2022 Omnibus Appropriations legislation. which included the designation of the entire Ports-to-Plains Corridor in Texas [ final plans from Canada to Mexico
Carol
3/15, 2022, Biden signed the FY 2022 Omnibus Appropriations legislation. included the designation of the entire Ports-to-Plains Corridor in Texas [ final plans from Canada to Mexico]]
Vicky Davis
Do you have a bill number? I did a search but the word Omnibus doesn’t come up. I have been searching on various terms for over an hour. They really buried this legislation. I searched on ‘Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’ but haven’t found the text of that either. I’m still working on it but if you can give me any bills numbers that would be very helpful. Thanks for letting me know.
Vicky Davis
I’m still working on it. This is like a shell game. I think the legislation is really another stimulus bill – keeping the economy on life support. Do you remember the ARRA? and then QE1 and QE2 followed by I can’t remember the ones that followed but I can find them I think.
Vicky Davis
I think I found the legislation. It was signed by Biden in November of 2021. It’s a place to start anyway.
H.R. 3684 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Became Public Law 117-58
H.R. 5434 Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2021 Became Public Law 117-44
H.R. 5763 Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2021 Became Public Law 117-52
H.R. 7776 James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 Became Public Law 117-263
Also H.Res. 774 (2021) This will take more work.
Carol
https://portstoplains.com/?fbclid=IwAR3etTEj9iPdvJykbnbb4-8_xYqSQ7yL_kPM5hDO6MOLbGOIKz-ENiQtRBg
Carol
Building a North American Community . I am sure you remember Ted Cruz’s wife was om this task force
https://www.cfr.org/report/building-north-american-community
CRUZ CELEBRATES SENATE PASSAGE OF LEGISLATION TO NAME PORTS-TO-PLAINS CORRIDOR ‘INTERSTATE 27’
https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cruz-celebrates-senate-passage-of-legislation-to-name-ports-to-plains-corridor-interstate-27
Shelby
http://worldparliament-gov.org/constitution/about/-the-constitution-for-the-federation-of-earth/
http://worldparliament-gov.org/world-parliament
http://worldparliament-gov.org/legislative-acts/world-legislative-acts/
Obudsmen abound as they role this all out
Even new positions with hospitals known as obudsmen
Vicky Davis
It’s an abomination.
Shelby
https://worldlegislativeacts27-53.weebly.com/wla-31.html
World Obudsman ACT 31
http://worldparliament-gov.org/legislative-acts/world-legislative-acts/
They are GODvernment positions