The House Foreign Affairs Committee is now in Republican hands, Save Jerseyans, and Rep. Chris Smith (R, NJ-04) laid into Secretary of State Antony Blinken at Thursday’s hearing over the Biden Administration’s insistence on entering into a binding international pandemic treaty. The end result, Smith explained, would be a serious abdication of American sovereignty to the World Health Organization (WHO) in future health emergencies.
“The zero-draft WHO pandemic treaty—that the Biden Administration and others are pushing to put into effect—starts off with a harsh criticism of the United States and the international community by calling it a ‘catastrophic failure of the international community in showing solidarity and equity in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic,’’ said Smith.
“Article 4 pays lip service to sovereignty and then has language that says, ‘provided that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to their peoples and other countries,’ which would empower the WHO to step in,” Smith added. “Article 10 says that the United States would be obligated to provide 20 percent of our medical supplies—including tests, vaccines, medications and the like—to the WHO. They would say ‘we want it, you have to give it by treaty obligation.”
Blinken ignored Smith concerns, countering only that the Biden Administration is “not engaged in negotiating a COVID treaty. What we are engaged in is trying to strengthen the global architecture for dealing with pandemics.” Blinken also failed to address whether President Biden would seek Senate approval for such a treaty as provided for in the U.S. Constitution.
Watch below:
