Friday, December 4, 2009
Free trade vs. fair trade
What's your opinion on free trade vs. fair trade, globalization, international trade and how it relates to the beef industry in Washington state. How do social and environmental laws relate to free and fair trade? Should we depend on WTO to be the best arbiter in the international trade arena? When is it wise for us to ask for government oversight of our industry? We see consolidation at all levels from the cow calf operator to the retail sector. What are the pluses and minuses of this consolidation? Your thoughts.
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I think I told Vic thank you for this post and told him I would respond one month ago today.No good excuse, I just wish days were 72 hours instead of 24 so I could get accomplished what I want and need to in a day.
ReplyDeleteAs for Vics post. I like to think of myself as a "free trade" advocate. However, it seems to me that on the surface of trade agreements I usually wonder where was the testicular fortitude of the person who negotiated this for the USA. Seems we are often on the short side. I will be the first to admit though sometimes it is just a lack of information or at least lack of good information. Take for example the Columbia free trade agreement proposal. On the surface to me it looks like they get a much better deal than us because it seems they come duty free and we get reduced tariff charges but over time befoe becoming tariff free. When you look closer a few things come to light. From my understanding they are ALREADY coming duty free, so the agreement keeps them at the same level while giving us incremental progress over time. I think it also eliminates the tariff on high value muscle cuts right off. I do not know how much that would amount to going to Colombia but I can be sure that whatever amount it is going tariff free or reduced is better than going at a higher current rate. Do not hold me to these parameters exactly because I have not studied the potential agreement for some time, but I think what I stated is correct.
As for the social and environmental laws and how they relate to trade. I feel that is a really slippery slope. I cannot believe any country has a higher standard of social standards than the USA. From that standpoint I would say we have nothing to gain and everything to lose by requiring other countries to equal our standard. That would hold mostly true for environmental regs as well, but I would guess places in Europe have even more rigid standards than the US.
Government oversight, obviously it cant be zero participation but when you ask government to solve a probelm you usually end up disappointed.
Consolidation at all levels. I cant spout long lists of advantages other than efficientcy throughout the chain. At the same time I see no way that consolidation will not continue to the point that someday your cows will be wearing a WM (WalMart) TY (Tyson) MD (McDonalds) brand. I feel my time is better spent trying to figure out how to be profitable in the industry no matter the consolidation than trying to stop it from happening.