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Old 06-23-2007, 09:01 AM
BluffTHIS! BluffTHIS! is offline
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Default Suggested plan to leverage the WTO issue in the senate

There were a couple very interesting and I believe important statements in oldbookguy's thread, Meeting with Senator Rockefeller Office June 22 from his meeting with Sen. Rockefeller (and let me add another "attaboy!" for same), where he relates the following:

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He is most upset that a treaty obligation is being broken and the reality now is it should be a Senate issue since this is their domain so to speak.

At the end of the meeting a comment was made to me; "if this was not so serious it would be comical a game of cards can cause such a international problem". I of course agreed. It would be comical if it were not really to important now given the developments.

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To be honest I am surprised that the WTO issue is taken seriously by an important senator. But since it obviously is in view of the possible ramifications for future US interests in the WTO, not to mention possible sanctions, then I would propose that lobbyists for the PPA and ourselves seek to leverage that concern in the following manner.

The senate from time to time passes non-legislative resolutions known as "the sense of the senate", where it expresses its concerns about various issues. Since this doesn't involve legislation, it is easier for a senator to vote for a resolution expressing the desire to deal with an issue, without having to specify the actual means, and usually with an eye to having the administration investigate what further action should be taken.

So it seems to me that we need to get a senator to introduce such a sense of the senate resolution expressing concern about the U.S. violating its international committments wrt the GATTS treaty, and which threaten via WTO litigation to expose U.S. industries to costly sanctions. And stating that the administration should draw up a plan to bring the U.S. into compliance, rather than seeking to further violate treaty obligations, or maintain legal positions that are contrary to both WTO intepretations and established U.S. court rulings (i.e. as to how the Wire Act is to be interpreted and how wide its scope is).

Such a resolution at the very least would bring this issue to greater prominence in both the news media and on capitol hill, and also prepare the way as it were for various legislative initiatives now underway in the house. And again, since the exact means of compliance aren't specified (yet), then such a resolution might be easier to pass.
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