Free Republic

<p>When the Italian manufacturer of Vespa motor scooters came back to the United States two years ago, it opened boutiques in places such as Denver, Chicago and the California community of Sherman Oaks.</p> <p>But this trendy vehicle -- sort of the Volkswagen Beetle of the motor scooter world -- isn't being limited to America's trendiest cities. Even now, construction workers are putting together a 1,500-square-foot boutique along Forbes Avenue in Oakland. The store should open by January, not long after the state's first Vespa boutique opens in Philadelphia.</p>

Got milk-like concentrate? Sen. Clinton wants Customs to get tougher Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) wants the U.S. Customs Service to get tougher on companies that import powdered milk-like "milk protein concentrate" that compete with New York dairy farmer's products. To get around high tariffs on nonfat dry milk, foreign companies blend powdered milk with casein and other dairy proteins and call it milk protein concentrate. These concentrates are subject to smaller tariffs so companies avoid paying higher taxes on what is essentially the same product, Clinton said in a letter sent Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner. "This deliberate deception should...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Buying lawnmower blades from Australia for $2,326 each or selling ATM machines to France for $97 apiece might seem overly generous to America's trading partners. But a study released Friday found corporations using such implausible pricing last year to avoid paying $53 billion in U.S. taxes. Under the practice known as transfer pricing, corporations move income out of the United States and into the hands of foreign affiliates, effectively putting profits out of reach of the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to being a means to evade taxes, such pricing schemes...

<p>The Bush administration's foray into steel protectionism has proven costly. The decision by the administration to exempt an additional 178 products from its steel safeguard represents the latest effort to remove itself from the quagmire. But in the coming weeks, the administration may have the political cover it wants to revoke the safeguard entirely and achieve "peace with honor."</p>

Some of the pro-north activists around here have been asking for a factual refutation of McPherson. Since I'm too cheap to purchase "Battle Cry" due to the fact that its revenues go into the pocket of an avowed Democrat with marxist political affiliations, I decided to examine his positions in one of those free articles on the web. Here goes... The following is intended as a refutation and analysis of the main arguments found in James McPherson's article "The Civil War: Causes and Results." I've broken it down by section to address his arguments in detail. His statements are selected...

<p>Sacramento, California, Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- California's top attorney said the state can't comply with a demand by U.S. energy regulators to change the makeup of the governing board of the state's power-grid agency, and may sue to halt the order.</p>

Intel to start fab plant in China Compelling reasons to shift By Mike Magee: Wednesday 07 August 2002, 11:10 RELIABLE SOURCES TELL the INQUIRER that by the year 2005 there's likely to be an Intel fabrication plant located in mainland China. And the firm is also planning on boosting its presence in Malaysia and another unnamed Asian country, we have learned. Intel already has a Chinese research centre in Beijing, to which it is actively recruiting staff, and a flash memory factory in Shanghai. But a fab in mainland China has obvious advantages. It would give Intel direct access to...

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 18 (UPI) -- The European Commission Thursday appeared set to urge European Union governments to slap sanctions on the United States for failing to lift punitive import duties on European steel products. President George W. Bush sparked protests from non-American steel producers this year when he decided to place tariff quotas and impose up to 30 percent extra duties on steel imports from March 20. The EC, along with other steel-exporting states, is seeking to overturn the U.S. safeguard measure in the World Trade Organization. As settlements often take more than a year to reach, the commission...

GENEVA, Jul 17, 2002 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- A World Trade Organization (WTO) arbitration panel has ruled that a U.S. law that allows the U.S. government to share antidumping duties with the affected domestic industry violates WTO agreements, trade sources said Wednesday. The sources said the WTO dispute settlement panel on Wednesday sent a confidential interim report on its ruling to the United States, Japan and other countries involved in the dispute. The dispute involves the so-called Byrd Amendment, which allows antidumping tariffs collected by the U.S. government to be shared with domestic industries allegedly to help offset damages...

President Bush's raw-materials tax has become a monument to the magic of unintended consequences. His March 5 decision to hike imported steel tariffs between 8 and 30 percent drew cheers from steel workers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. But thousands more from coast to coast jeer Bush's protectionism. The president should toss his steel taxes into the nearest junkyard. "It's very serious here in the port of New Orleans," laments James Campbell, president of International Longshoremen's Association, Local 3000. "We are off about 40 percent on steel," since March 5, Campbell estimates. "I would say about a third...

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (Reuters) - Hugo Uriarte and his old factory buddies gather around a table every Tuesday to drink an espresso and chat about their grandchildren, soccer and life since they were all laid off six years ago. They have one rule: grumbling about the economy is forbidden. Still, as a four-year recession shows no sign of ending, Uriarte cannot help but wonder if a decade of painful reforms has left his tiny country of Uruguay with its back broken. "We sound like a bunch of old geezers who have been left behind," Uriarte said, grinning weakly as his blue...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. PHOENIX -- Arizona's honey industry is struggling because of urban sprawl, parasitic mites and cheap foreign imports. Production of the rich elixir sought by connoisseurs for its low moisture content and traces of citrus, ironwood, mesquite and catclaw blossoms is down, along with the number of domestic bee colonies and the average wholesale price of honey. The drought in Arizona is also posing a problem for the struggling industry. Pat and Ken Orletsky of Mesa are sending 150 million bees to North Dakota. Their bees usually spend their summers near Flagstaff,...

By the time you read this, the Senate will no doubt have passed "fast track" legislation, forfeiting its right under the Constitution to set trade policy to the executive branch. This ought to be of grave concern to Americans. It is the Constitution that sets us apart from other nations, not the fact that we have elections. If it is routinely violated, then we become no different from any other country. Our lives and our liberty will then exist, in reality, only by the leave of the government — not as the Founding Fathers believed and intended, because we have...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. TOKYO -- Japan's two biggest steelmakers reported huge losses Thursday for the fiscal year that ended in March on diminishing sales and lower prices, both pushed down by the global slump. Nippon Steel Corp., Japan's largest steelmaker, posted a group net loss of 28.4 billion yen ($229 million) for fiscal 2001 -- reversing a profit of 26.49 billion a year ago -- as demand and product prices fell. Group sales dropped 6.1 percent to 2.58 trillion yen ($21 billion) from 2.750 trillion yen. NKK Corp., the No. 2 steelmaker, also sank...

China's biggest steelmaker has seen its profits plummet as it faces what observers believe will be a flood of foreign steel into its domestic market. Now that the US has slapped tariffs on steel imports in an attempt to protect its own industry, exporting countries are thought likely to look to China's huge and booming economy as an alternative market. Baoshan Iron & Steel's admission that net profits for the first three months of the year were 39.5% lower than last year therefore comes at a bad time. The company, the fourth biggest in the world by market capitalisation, said...

<p>A Beaver County steel tubing plant that was closed last summer has reopened, and its owners say 115 jobs will be created over the next three years.</p> <p>The former Maverick Tube plant in Beaver Falls resumed business April 1 and is now known as Pennsylvania Cold Drawn, LLC. Some 20 employees are working at the plant, which will make cold-drawn hydraulic and pressure vessel tubing used for oil drilling and in heavy earth- moving equipment.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- The United States has asked for and received extraordinary help from Pakistan in the war on terrorism. Now Pakistan has asked for something from the United States.</p> <p>Pakistan (per capita income: $470) has asked this mighty republic (per capita income: $26,503), which spans a continent and bestrides the globe like a colossus, to remove the quotas on imports of Pakistani pillows and sheets. It also asked the United States to suspend textile tariffs until 2004, and permit 50 percent increases in quotas for pajamas, towels, underwear and some other apparel.</p>

<p>Pennsylvania House has been manufacturing wood furniture in central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna Valley since 1887.</p> <p>And nearly 90 percent of the hardwood used at its plant in Lewisburg, Union County, is cherry, the majority of which comes from mills within a 100-mile radius.</p>

<p>The Bush administration has the dubious distinction of having started a trade war that is gaining some momentum. As part of its election strategy to woo key states, the administration contradicted its own advocacy of free-trade and erected tariffs on steel imports of up to 30 percent, which took effect last month. Unsurprisingly, that move has triggered retaliation the world over. It provides an illustrative lesson on the perils of politically motivated protectionism.</p>

It surprised only the most verdant rookie that the passage of the new campaign-finance law already has failed to control runaway fund raising and has provided both loopholes and excuses for increased solicitations. When the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) had sent an e-mail request to donors asking them to double their contributions to meet fund-raising goals, only the jaws of the booboisie dropped. Nor did the eyes of the sophisticated widen when President George W. Bush took the opportunity personally to draw the attention of contributors to Republican senatorial candidates. Indeed,...