Costa Rica's government proponents underwent a campaign "to stimulate fear" among voters in an effort to get CAFTA passed.  The Bush Administration issued repeated threats if the measure did not pass.  Reid and Pelosi sent a letter to the Costa Rican ambassador trying to neutralize the threats. 

The Costa Rican government also apparently violated domestic campaign laws by conducting rallies and distributing propaganda two days before the vote.  Public Citizen deals the government's campaign violations in the Global Trade Watch blog.

The agreement narrowly passed - by just over 51%.  The Washington Post editorial board cheered, dismissing that government's fear campaign as a "regrettable memo."  The world is saved!

But this is the strongest anti-trade vote yet.  Costa Rica is a relatively rich country in Latin America.  New trade deals now become harder.   

A re-evaluation is necessary.  Trade will continue.  It always has and always will.  But whether the lobbyists get their pet provisions in new trade deals is the question. 

When it comes to food safety, the Federal Government is all seeing and all knowing.

Which explains why many of our markets are all gone.

Take the Topps hamburger recall. The government, in its all knowing ways just knew that the problem wasn’t large. The recall was delayed nearly a month. Then 21 million pounds were recalled. What were they waiting for? We can only surmise that the attitude at USDA was wait and wait and wait and wait and see.

Inactive oversight at USDA is an energizer bunny; Still Growing………

Costa Rica will soon vote on whether to approve CAFTA.  But the government there is involved with a campaign "to stimulate fear" in order to get the agreement passed.  Sounds kind of like a hard-core version of the U.S. tactics here. 

Two government officials, a part of the local "Yes" campaign, outlined their plans.

The authors proposed smearing CAFTA opponents by linking them to leftist firebrands such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro. They called for a public relations campaign to "stimulate fear" among citizens about the alleged dangers of snubbing the deal.

The U.S. government is helping.  Our ambassador to Costa Rica has been traveling the country threatening economic reprisals if the voters defeat the CAFTA vote. 

The American version of the "to stimulate fear" campaign is:

1. call your opponents protectionists
2. call your opponents isolationist
3. shout "remember the Smoot Hawley tariff"
4. raise Very. Serious. Concerns. about a trade war
5. repeat.

A recent Pew Global Attitudes poll found some favorable views of trade in the world.  But not in the developed world... Europe and the U.S. for example.  Trade policy conducted in a stupid way will have that effect.

In countries like Argentina, which recently experienced trade-based growth, the attitude toward trade has become more positive.

The fundamental principle missed is this.  If trade is balanced, it is good.  People like it.  There are benefits.  If you have trade deficits, the loss of jobs and economic security produces low public opinion ratings. 

Reality just keeps coming back to pop the bubble of the theorists.  Cognitive dissonance sets in and the free trade pushers get very agitated and angry.  Trade deficits cause massive job losses.  Trade surpluses produce job gains.  Not a big secret.

Here is a list of countries's trade surpluses with the U.S.  I would bet a donut that there is a correlation between poll results and balance of trade among the countries. 

We can continue to have the 8th grade debate about whether trade is good or bad, and continue obscuring the point.  But the issue is how you conduct trade and regulate it, not whether you do it.