Free trade bandwagon loses its steam

The Age (Australia) ^ | 6. December 2005 | Tim Colebatch

[stephenjohnbanker]

"The question now is whether the WTO can work at all. If not, the trade game now is every man for himself.

And China, with its undervalued currency, will keep winning."

There is our "free trade"

[A. Pole]

In the rich countries, tariffs on manufactures now average just 3 per cent, yet tariffs on farm produce average 22 per cent. On some, they are astronomical: 94 per cent on sugar to the US, 153 per cent on beef to Europe, and 693 per cent on wheat to Japan.
[...]
Removing all trade barriers, say Anderson, Martin and Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, would lift the world's output by $US287 billion ($A385 billion), as resources move from high-cost producers to low-cost producers, allowing far more to be produced.

The grain production in Japan will be eliminated and in case of any disruption of trade, Japanese people will STARVE!

[1rudeboy]

Where?

[Ace of Spades]

We can't have free trade if our trading partners don't respect the free market.

[brownsfan]

"We can't have free trade if our trading partners don't respect the free market."

You have it all wrong. Free trade works as long as I can buy cheap stuff and my portfolio climbs.
The rest of it is all details. / < sarcasm>

[Last Dakotan]

The WTO's members are not flocking to the free trade banner.

Blame the Asian Merchantilists.

[1rudeboy]

That's right. Buying (unnecessarily) expensive stuff and a falling portfolio are not only ideals, but evidence of patriotism. /sarc

[Ace of Spades]

"You have it all wrong. Free trade works as long as I can buy cheap stuff and my portfolio climbs.
The rest of it is all details. / < sarcasm>"

I just love that mentality. Those cheap prices are great until our paychecks start dropping along with them.

[hedgetrimmer]

but unless ministers can bridge the chasm on farm tariffs, free movement of persons that too could be lost.

Anything to wipe out our borders and interfere with the sovereign governance of our country is AOK with the "free traders".

[1rudeboy]

So we should screw the people with low wages now, and avoid the wait?

[1rudeboy]

You are master of the non sequitur. I bow before you.

[em2vn]

Please don't make sense here. It rubs the anything for a buck communist chinese supporters the wrong way.

[HamiltonJay]

Free Trade in its current form is an absolute scam.

Trade agreements are bilateral between two nations, and should remain that way.

One nation wishes to gain access to anothers markets, it should earn them...

Our biggest failure as the world's superpower has been in the area of trade.

Instead of using it to rid the world of despots and improve liberty around the world, we have burned the opportunity wholesale.

With large multinational organizations with no accountability, we export our wealth wholesale, to nations that execute political dissenters wholesale...

We are squandering God's providence and grace.. and there will be a price to pay for it.

[hedgetrimmer]

WTO talks are supposed to be a "development round," and migration has an enormous role to play both in raising global living standards and reducing global income disparities.

Should the guest worker solution be applied in Europe and North America in the hope of avoiding the social frictions that come with permanent settlement? Or is dependence on such a foreign underclass without political rights morally corrosive, a modern form of bonded labor, of non-chattel slavery?

The "free traders" at the WTO push 'migration' at the Doha round. The "free traders" refuse to enforce sovereign borders because it creates a "barrier to trade". The "free traders" are casting the world into chaos.

[1rudeboy]

Who/what are you quoting? Are you on the proper thread?

[HamiltonJay]

START??????

Better wake up to reality... it takes 2 incomes per househould just to match in real dollars what 1 did 30 years ago.

[Ace of Spades]

Ever notice that arguing with a free trader is like arguing with a communist? They're so convinced of their own righteousness that there's no point.

[dljordan]

" The grain production in Japan will be eliminated and in case of any disruption of trade, Japanese people will STARVE!"

They always seem to assume that everything will be perfect. When you degrade or destroy a nations ability to feed itself you place that nation at grave risk. Of course the profiteers could care less.

[1rudeboy]

What was that, exactly? 4-room house, no garage or a/c, and a 12" b/w TV?