I dont know anything about Free/Fair Trade. What's the deal? Who does it help or hurt? What are the major issues within this one issue? The only things that I know about it are: 1. They sell a lot of "Fair Trade" stuff at Whole Foods such as coffee 2. People protest either parties conventions on this topic in which a lot of unshowered men and "women" go to jail Discuss....
Martin will explain it all to you, I'm sure.:hihi: Trade is great as a whole. We get to buy cheap imported stuff that we wouldn't otherwise get to buy. And it opens up new markets for American businesses into foreign countries. Not sure many people would argue against trade. Fair trade is an entirely different topic. Most emerging countries, like China, don't have the same standards and regulations we have in this country. Lack of regulations in these countries leads to poor quality control, which we found out with poisoned dog food recently. They also pay much less to workers and, in some cases, have children doing the work. That's why their products are so cheap and many American businesses have moved their operations to places like India. Some say the U.S. cannot compete fairly with those countries. The most recent example of unfair trade is with Mexico. Mexican truckers are not allowed more than 70 miles into the U.S. to deliver their load. That has recently changed and we will allow them to drive from Mexico to Canada. Of course, American truckers aren't allowed to drive anywhere in Mexico. I like free and fair trade.
free trade is world's best hope. and that is not pointless hyperbole, it really is the solution to most problems. however "fair trade" coffee is a symbolic insignificance that is basically a voluntary guilt tax for white liberals. it doesnt really do anythign except help out the profits of whole foods a little. it is a waste of your money, if you are buying coffee. symbolism over substance. the primary destroyer of poor food growing dudes is bad government policies. for instance, a guy with a crappy coffee farm might could be making more money with a corn farm, but he can't because america pours billion and billions into domestic subsidy, so we american pay out the ass to prevent foreigners from fair access to our market, which hurts everyone, except the farm lobbyists. these hairy hippies, the ones opposing globalization, are almost certainly doing more harm than good, although i do not know exactly what they stand for. i agree with them that beards are awesome. if we support politicians who favor killing protectionist trade policies, that would do a thousand times more for the world than buying every "fair" coffee bean on the planet.
Good point. The most money we ever made farming crops was when we put our land in pasture, put cows on it, and STILL collected government payments. I spoke to people about how that was possible, the changes needed, and was told it wouldn't happen cause the legislatators and a lot of their support, were property owners. The money doesn't even always make it down to the farmer- different tenants have different arrangements.
what did you guys grow? i know that the LA cane market is badly damaged by the fact that nebraska and places like that have managed to push so much governmetn money into corn, that it makes corn syrup such a cheap sweetener (not actually cheap, paid for in taxes) that it kills cane sugar farmers in LA.
As always, there is a proper balance to be sought between free trade and fair trade policies. In this fashion any negative consequences are minimized and also more equally balanaced.
By and large I have always been a free trade advocate. It avoids trade wars. But for trade to truely be free, it must also be fair. Making trade fair is the hard part that usually involves a lot on hard negotiation.
Don't worry. NAFTA will one day go away and be replaced with the North American Union. Mexico, Canada and the U.S. will be one big happy family.:wink:
