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Tariffs and Subsidies
September 17, 2005 ( politics )
BBC reports:
President George W Bush has renewed his pledge that the US will abolish all trade tariffs if others do the same.His comments came as US trade representative Rob Portman and European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson meet for fresh trade talks.
The two are trying to come to agreement on abolishing agricultural subsidies.
Interesting pledge from Bush. They're trying to abolish subsidies, and he pleges only to end tariffs. That's America's concept of free trade for you, sure 'nuff, and the likelihood that any congresscritter who votes to end ag subsidies who has a rural continengent (and that's a lot of 'em) will get re-elected is just about nil.
As long as subsidies are a reality, I feel that there should be tariffs on exporting subsidized goods to pay for the cost (or at least part of it), which would have the added benefit of not exporting things under cost, which has a long history of gutting local markets in the developing world and destroying the local capacity to produce, which, if the real cost of production ever is revealed, will cause serious food shortages in those nations.
Posted by griffjon at September 17, 2005 11:28 AM
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