Comments on: A First ‘First’ for Obama http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/a-first-%e2%80%98first%e2%80%99-for-obama/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:30:43 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Michael Kenny http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/a-first-%e2%80%98first%e2%80%99-for-obama/#comment-39661 Michael Kenny Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:18:25 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6942#comment-39661 A small point of accuracy. NAFTA does not ressemble the EU in the slightest. Political union was always part of the EU project, right from the ECSC Treaty in 1952. It was not an afterthought. The discussion has always been about which road to take and how fast to go. NAFTA is much more like the failed EFTA project, which the British set up in an attempt to create an alternative to the EU. EFTA, like NAFTA, suffered from all the disadvantages of being a mere free trade area and for that reason, failed, with most of its former members now in the EU and a few recalcitrants in the EEA. Iceland is now learning the bitter lesson of being a small country outside the EU! One more small point: the EU doesn't issue passports (I'm a national of an EU Member State!). All the Member States mention the fact of their EU membership on the passports they issue. A small point of accuracy. NAFTA does not ressemble the EU in the slightest. Political union was always part of the EU project, right from the ECSC Treaty in 1952. It was not an afterthought. The discussion has always been about which road to take and how fast to go. NAFTA is much more like the failed EFTA project, which the British set up in an attempt to create an alternative to the EU. EFTA, like NAFTA, suffered from all the disadvantages of being a mere free trade area and for that reason, failed, with most of its former members now in the EU and a few recalcitrants in the EEA. Iceland is now learning the bitter lesson of being a small country outside the EU! One more small point: the EU doesn’t issue passports (I’m a national of an EU Member State!). All the Member States mention the fact of their EU membership on the passports they issue.

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