Free Republic

Australia looks set to join a virtual class action before the World Trade Organisation as industrialised countries vowed yesterday to overturn President George Bush's decision to slap a 30 per cent tariff on steel imports to the United States. Abandoning his free trade rhetoric in favor of political interests, Mr Bush said he was imposing tariffs under WTO safeguard rules to "help (American) steelworkers, communities that depend on steel, and the steel industry adjust ... to the large influx of foreign steel." The tariffs are primarily aimed at steelmakers in Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan and the European Union. But ...

THE European Union condemned President Bush’s “Wild West” attitude to global trade laws yesterday and vowed to retaliate with every legitimate weapon including, if necessary, punitive sanctions on US products worth roughly $2.5 billion (£1.75 billion). Leading a worldwide chorus of protests, Brussels insisted that there were no legal or economic grounds for Mr Bush’s imposition of 30 per cent tariffs on steel imports, only his desire to appease a powerful domestic steel lobby whose support he needed for electoral purposes. “This is a case where Americans have clearly given preference to their domestic political interests over and above the ...

President Bush's decision to impose tariffs on imported steel prompted European countries to hit back Wednesday with a complaint to the World Trade Organization and the threat of retaliatory trade barriers. Pascal Lamy, the European Union trade commissioner, said that the EU will lodge an "immediate complaint" with the WTO. The British government is considering filing a complaint of its own. Lamy said the U.S. decision would hurt the EU in an "unjustified and unfounded way." "The decision to go down the route of protectionism is a major setback for the world trading system," he said. "Imports are not the ...

Bush Puts Tariffs of as Much as 30% on Steel Imports By DAVID E. SANGER ASHINGTON, March 5 — President Bush took some of the broadest federal action in two decades to protect a major American industry today, imposing tariffs of up to 30 percent on most types of steel imported into the United States from Europe, Asia and South America. The tariffs will last three years, he said, to give American steel producers time to consolidate operations and stem layoffs. Mr. Bush's action is likely to send the price of steel up sharply, perhaps as much as 10 ...

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Shanghai communique that called for a betterment of relations between the United States and China, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Tuesday he doesn't consider China a communist nation. "I don't think China is a communist country in the sense of Soviet communism," said Kissinger. "It has institutions that we consider different and in many ways incompatible with our notions of domestic institutions. But it also clear, that the China 10 years from now, after the huge changes which it has already undergone will be far different from the China of today." The ...

TOKYO (AP) - Countries around the world criticized the U.S. government's decision to impose punitive tariffs on steel imports, including Japan and South Korean, both of whom said they may join the European Union in a complaint to the World Trade Organization. President Bush slapped punishing tariffs of as much as 30 percent on several types of imported steel in an effort to help the ailing U.S. industry. The nations hardest hit by the tariffs include China, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine and Russia. "We doubt whether the United States is sustaining any grave damage to the extent that will justify ...

Union hails outcome as "victory for grassroots activism"; says it creates "a moral imperative" for Congress to protect health care benefits of retirees Pittsburgh - The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) said today that President Bush's decision to impose significant tariffs on many steel imports for three years "raises our hopes that America's steel industry can be saved and sets the stage for legislation necessary to protect the health care benefits of 600,000 steelworker retirees whose benefits remain at risk." "The grassroots activism of literally tens of thousands of citizens from steel communities throughout the nation's industrial heartland," said USWA ...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The world's major steel producers threatened the United States with lawsuits and trade reprisals Tuesday as President Bush (news - web sites) prepared to slap tariffs of up to 30 percent on steel imports. In a chorus of outrage against unilateral measures designed to protect the ailing U.S. steel industry, the European Union (news - web sites), Russia, Japan, South Korea (news - web sites) and Brazil vowed to fight back if Washington, which preaches free trade, erected new barriers. European Commission (news - web sites) President Romano Prodi wrote to Bush on Monday, expressing serious concern ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) will announce on Tuesday a decision to impose tariffs of up to 30 percent on most imported steel, sources said, in a decision that could spark a trade war with major European and Asian trading partners. The decision could also affect U.S. mid-term elections in November and possibly Bush's re-election chances in 2004, when major steel-making states Pennsylvania and Ohio may prove crucial. Another steel state, West Virginia, was pivotal for Bush in 2000. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) would not confirm the 30 percent figure, but ...

<p>WASHINGTON -- President Bush will impose tariffs of up to 30 percent on steel imports in a bid to aid the ailing U.S. steel industry, White House officials said Tuesday of a move certain to draw opposition from American allies.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. BOSTON -- An alleged conflict of interest has led to calls for a shake-up at the Harvard Business Review. Some magazine staffers have demanded the resignation of Editor Suzy Wetlaufer after she acknowledged a relationship with an interview subject, former General Electric Co. Chairman Jack Welch. After Wetlaufer interviewed Welch, she told Walter Kiechel, editorial director of Harvard Business School Publishing Co., that she had grown too close to Welch and recommended that her article be scrapped. Kiechel said he agreed, and reassigned the article. Senior editors Diane Coutu and Harris ...

WASHINGTON — President Bush decided Monday to impose tariffs of up to 30 percent on most imported steel as part of a broader plan to rescue the nation’s financially troubled steel industry, administration officials said. Under the plan Bush endorsed at an Oval Office meeting with advisers, steel imported from Canada and Mexico would be exempt from the duties, as would imports from developing countries such as Argentina, Thailand and Turkey. Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, Ukraine and Brazil would be among the nations subject to the tariffs. Administration officials continued adjusting the plan into the night, hoping to win ...

March 5, 2002 Bush Edging Toward Decision on Steel Imports By RICHARD W. STEVENSON ASHINGTON, March 4 — The White House edged toward a final decision today to impose tariffs on imported steel, as President Bush weighed recommendations from his advisers and last-minute pleas from an array of competing interests. Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Bush intended to make his decision by Wednesday but had not yet signed off on all the elements of a plan. Administration officials have signaled that Mr. Bush is leaning toward a combination of tariffs and quotas that would vary ...

Granting trade protection to the steel industry is a false trade-off. o later than March 6, President Bush must make a difficult decision on whether to grant trade protection to the steel industry. While he knows that the economics are totally against protection, Mr. Bush is being strongly pressured to grant it on political grounds. However, it is a false trade-off. Whatever he gains in the short-run, he will lose in the long-run. The history of the U.S. steel industry over the last several decades has been pretty much a continuous effort to get restrictions on imports, which it ...

March 4, 2002 Bush's Plan to Raise Steel Tariffs Would Exempt Most Poor Nations By DAVID E. SANGER and JOSEPH KAHN ASHINGTON, March 3 — President Bush's top economic advisers have presented him with proposals to rescue the American steel industry that would most heavily penalize China, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and South Korea, but exempt most poor nations — and Mexico and Canada — from punishing tariffs. With Mr. Bush facing a deadline that requires him to announce a decision by Wednesday, the advisers are seeking a way for him to argue that he is making good on his ...

<p>No later than Wednesday, President Bush must make a difficult decision on whether to grant trade protection to the steel industry. While he knows the economics are totally against protection, Mr. Bush is being strongly pressured to grant it on political grounds. However, it is a false tradeoff. Whatever he gains in the short run, he will lose in the long run.</p>

Liberalized trade policy can lead to decreased child labor in developing countries, according to a recent study published by a think tank. The study, "Does Globalization Increase Child Labor? Evidence From Vietnam," published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, an independent policy research organization, found that increased rice prices in Vietnam that resulted from the removal of export quotas during the 1990's lead to a significant decrease in overall child labor. Given that many recent globalization efforts have focused on agricultural trade, the study highlights some of the key points in the debate surrounding worldwide trade liberalization. The report's ...

<p>Alcoa Inc. Chairman Alain J. P. Belda asked the company's board of directors in January to cut his 2002 salary by 20 percent — to set an example for how the company should operate "during challenging business conditions."</p> <p>Belda also asked for, and received, a 10-percent reduction in salaries for all executives who directly report to him for 2002.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- Pillowtex Corp. plans to cut nearly 1,000 jobs as it closes a towel manufacturing plant in Georgia and scales back operations at an Alabama mill. Pillowtex disclosed the cutbacks Thursday as a federal court in Delaware approved its plan to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings. The company's brands include Cannon, Fieldcrest and Royal Velvet. The cutbacks are designed to save the company about $20 million a year. As part of the plan, some 200 workers will be hired in its home base of Kannapolis. Allen Oakley, executive vice president ...

We can win the elections and bring conservative values back on center stage without fear of being labeled, retaking America back from the philosophical dialectics imprisoning it. I (we) have discovered the Matrix. The key word is vigilentism. Laws that are unconstitutional are essentialy vigilente laws, that define narrowly actions or groups of people as deserving of immediate action while other real crimes never get prosecuted. Take abortion, for example. Liberals are pro-abortion and fall into the trap of enacting Vigilente laws that would allow outlaw women to kill their babies at will. Think about it, we can re-program their ...