At 08:22 AM 12/17/1999 -0600, you wrote:
>A couple of comments on the essay:
>
>> 'Free trade' seems to mean that trade between countries occurs with no
>> government regulation or restraint. Or, in other words, no
>> quotas, licenses,
>> taxes, safety concerns, inspections, or limits of any kind.
>> Business people
>> are free to do what they will in buying and selling products
>> and services
>> between countries.
>
>This definition is fatally flawed. Free trade as the complete absence of
>management of trade flows? This is nowhere practised and nowhere espoused
>as desirable. It is not, as suggested, an ideal which free traders cannot
>in fact reach, and for which they reluctantly settle on second-best
>alternatives. The definition as per every trade regime I know is
>non-discrimination by governments: you treat like goods from different
>countries alike, and you treat like goods from foreigners and domestic
>producers alike. The treatment thus resulting involves a huge number of
>taxes, safety regulations, inspections and other limits, and these are seen
>as acceptable and desirable.
I like your definition better, although it a more technical one. But, so far
as I can tell the arguments against free trade apply equally well to both
definitions. Am I missing something?
>
>The subsequent critique of laissez-faire (the "theoretical argument") is
>therefore quite off the mark. And there are more theoretical arguments for
>free trade than comparative advantage, which most trade economists now
>regard as minimally significant. Most now focus on the dynamic gains from
>trade, such as new technologies brought by investors, the efficiencies that
>firms must create in facing foreign competition, etc.
>
My point is that it is impossible to treat foreign and domestic goods alike
since they come from different cultures: each price reflects value
judgements that are different in each country. Not just the overt regulatory
ones - the hidden value judgements.
Cheers,
Mike P. McKeever
Economics Instructor, Vista Community College, Berkeley, CA
Founder: The McKEEVER INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC POLICY ANALYSIS (MIEPA)
3060 Curran Avenue, Oakland, CA 94602 USA
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