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Consider this principle that I brilliantly propose:
Free trade agreements are destructive because the distract from,
and entrench, the very unfair trade problems that are causing the
economic gutting of America, the outsourcing, the shoddy and dangerous
goods. Our big problems are not tariffs. They are foreign
subsidies, currency misalignment, foreign border tax regimes.
Gargantuan amounts of price disparity arise from these government
interventions.
Now consider those trapped in the debates of decades past. The WaPo Editorial Board whines today
about the Doha round of WTO talks foundering. The negotiators'
Doha vacation started in Doha, Qatar, in 2001. Seven years
ago. What are they doing all that time, I wonder? Seven
years. Is the golf really good there?
The Doha round has been declared dead, but still government provide
salaries and expense accounts to these "hard workers."
In any event, here's what the brilliant economic experts at the WaPo have to say. Hilarious.
At a time of rising food prices, a successful Doha round could add
billions of dollars to the earning potential of farmers in the
developing world -- as well as to that of businesses and workers around
the globe.
Yup. A lot of empirical support for that claim. We have more
liberalized trade than ever now. And what result? Economic chaos. I
guess we need more of it. The free trade deals, I mean.
They root for a French guy.
You have probably never heard of Pascal Lamy, but he might be able to save the world. The only question is when he should do it.
Okay, so we're exaggerating a bit. Not about Mr. Lamy's obscurity:
The veteran French bureaucrat is director general of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), which hardly makes him a household name, even
though he is a remarkably talented and persistent international public
servant. It's not precisely true that he is the only person who can
save our troubled planet. But he might just be the last possible savior
of global trade liberalization.
PUH-LEASE. "[S]ave our troubled planet." They wrote the words
tongue-in-cheek, but it shows the depth of their religion. These
are the Very. Serious. People. in DC. Some even listen to
them. Though one wonders who.
Empirical data. Do they have any? Do they have data
showing that "trade" increases with WTO membership? Consider this study
that says WTO membership does not increase trade, performed by Andrew
Rose of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He surprised
himself with the results, which he did not expect.
And consider the trade negotiator, Robert Cassidy, that helped the U.S. get China into the WTO. He said he was wrong.
The WaPo is wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
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