Countries don’t trade; people do
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/11/peop…
There’s a growing anti-trade sentiment in our country. Much of the dialogue is grossly misinformed. Let’s try to untangle it a bit with a few questions and observations.
Does the U.S. trade with Japan and England? Put another way, is it members of the U.S. Congress trading with their counterparts in the Japanese Diet or the English Parliament? Of course not. When I purchased my Lexus, I had nothing to do with either the Japanese Diet or the U.S. Congress. Through an intermediary, a Lexus dealer, I dealt with Toyota Motor Corporation.
I’ve got a relative who is a right-wing populist – a sort of Bill O’Reilly type.
Call him a Schwarzenneger Republican.
He’s not in favor of tons of trade restrictions, but he thinks that we need to restrict trade “when it gets too one-sided”. Of course, this is like someone who is in favor of free speech right up until they hear something other than cliches and positive affirmations. Duh. Of course we don’t need to formally protect speech when everyone is happy and fuzzy, and of course we don’t need to protect trade when the unions are fat, dumb and happy, and somehow achieving success despite that.
Anyway, he always couches things in terms of countries.
And I always fire back with “I want to buy a German motorcycle. Who are you, and who is Congress, to tell me that I can’t? Or to tell me that I can, but I have to first burn a stack of hundred dollar bills in the form of taxes, so as to encourage me to instead buy a crapper product from other people who you claim to stand up for?”.
The argument doesn’t work (in the sense of changing his mind), but it certainly does take a lot of wind out of his sails – he now has to defend his policies in terms of how they are worth the cost of imposing on my rights.
November 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I want a trade policy like Clancy poohpoohed in one of his later books, where we (the US) mirrors the other countries trade regulations. If japan/china/whereever wants its industry to have open access to our markets, they would have to open theirs to our industry.
Tariffs are lame, and any collected in the process of mirroring a tariff should immediately be given to a private organization that exists to help our veterans that have secured our rights.
November 28th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Mike, are you of the opinion that the US is a champion of free trade, undermined by cunning foreigners? If so, I doubt if you are right.
November 28th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
“Call him a Schwarzenneger Republican. ”
So…a Democrat?
November 28th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
TJIC, nice sounding argument with the German bike, but it’s fundamentally crazy of course for why wouldn’t you drive a Suzuki?
I love listening to Americans claiming to be free traders. Up here in Canada we know you never were, never will be. Neither are we, but that’s another story.
We are a country of big cheap spaces full of rocks, trees and grass. So we try to sell you cheap minerals, lumber and beef and every miner, lumberjack and rancher from Eureka, Montana on south starts screaming that we Canuckis are starving his children.
We sign NAFTA and then spend 20 years litigating with you. When we win in front of 3 trade panels in a row, with majority American members, the US government blandly refuses to comply and says the US Gubmint ain’t bound by no stinkin’ treaty panel.
When it comes to sneaky work-arounds to a free trade treaty you cannot beat an American. Canadian beef too cheap? I know, lets make every steak have a ‘country of origin’ sticker on it. That way American packing plants and grocery chains will shun foreign cattle because the incremental cost of that labelling is a killer to already thin margins.
Canadian lumber too cheap? I know, lets claim that low stumpage taxes are a subsidy. I like that one: “Low taxes are an improper subsidy”. Hasn’t the EU been claiming that about the USA for years?
Oh, well.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:19 am
[quote comment="173038"]I want a trade policy like Clancy poohpoohed in one of his later books, where we (the US) mirrors the other countries trade regulations. If japan/china/whereever wants its industry to have open access to our markets, they would have to open theirs to our industry.[/quote]
If China chooses to restrict their citizens from choosing between brand U and brand C, and insists that all citizens buy brand C (which might be the best choice for some, but not all, Chinese citizens), I don’t quite understand how the US government then infringing on US citizen’s ability to choose between brand U and brand C in any way helps US citizens.