Free Republic

The butter mountains and milk lakes that made Brussels a byword for waste and inefficiency are to make a return in response to plummeting world dairy prices. EU officials are to buy up and store 30,000 tonnes of butter and 109,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder in the next few months as part of a series of moves agreed yesterday to use the EU budget to prop up European farmers. The U-turn, after several years of liberalising free trade policies, was criticised by producers around the world as a step back into the protectionism that led to the Great Depression...

Mercantilism [emphasis added]: An economic doctrine that flourished in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Mercantilists held that a nation's wealth consisted primarily in the amount of gold and silver in its treasury. Accordingly, mercantilist governments imposed extensive restrictions on their economies to ensure a surplus of exports over imports. In the eighteenth century, mercantilism was challenged by the doctrine of laissez-faire. When Barack Obama talks—and talks—about the future, does he really mean "back to the future"? You have to wonder after reading the column by one of his economic advisors in today's LA Times. In Renewing America's...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday vowed to aid small farmers by targeting agricultural tariffs and subsidies doled out to agribusiness. "If I am elected president, I will seek an end to all agricultural tariffs, and to all farm subsidies that are not based on clear need. I will veto any bill containing special-interest favors and corporate welfare in any form," McCain said in remarks prepared for delivery to the National Restaurant Association in Chicago. McCain, an Arizona senator, said one of the biggest obstacles to opening up foreign markets to American farmers is found in...

Last year, a German tourist traveling through China spotted a set of nested salt and pepper shakers: The slender cylinder of pepper rested perfectly in the center of the doughnut-shaped salt holder. It was a sleek design. It was also, he recognized, an almost exact copy of the successful Two-in-One salt-and-pepper set made by Geislingen (Germany)-based WMF, and he sent it to the company. As a result, the maker of the imitation—Shantou Lian Plastic Products of Guangdong, China—is one of 13 winners of the Plagiarius Award, a dubious honor bestowed on makers and distributors of the "best" (which is to...

The die is now cast. As the euro brushes $1.50 against the dollar, it is already too late to stop the eurozone hurtling into a full-fledged economic and political crisis. We now have to start asking whether the EU itself will survive in its current form. It takes eighteen months or so for the full effects of currency changes to feed through, so the damage will snowball late next year and beyond into 2009. Although "damage" is a relative term. As Airbus chief Thomas Enders warned in a speech to the Hamburg workers last night, Europe's champion plane-maker - the...

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 significantly raised import restrictions, reduced trade and prosperity, provoked protectionist retaliation by foreign governments, and damaged the spirit of peace, cooperation, and goodwill.

BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - Officials from the Federal Reserve on Saturday warned of dangers from a rising tide of trade disputes and the harmful impact on what one otherwise termed a "resilient" United States economy. Three regional Fed presidents steered clear of current economic or monetary policy topics at a panel discussion on the southern U.S. economy at the Southern Governors' Association conference. The presidents of the St. Louis, Dallas and Atlanta Feds, respectively, mostly focused on the dangers of protectionism and the need for an educated and flexible work force to cope with rising foreign competition. The governors convened...

Some good may yet come from the successful putsch by the staff of the World Bank against Paul Wolfowitz. A great deal of good, in fact. Not that we should cheer the ability of an overpaid staff, besotted with anti-war fervour, to zap its president, first by urging him to resolve personally the conflict created by his girlfriend’s employment at the bank, and then by attacking him for doing just that. But this cloud has more than one silver lining. The first is that it finally made President Bush realise that he has been too attentive to those who advise...

BEIJING (AP) -- China reported a sharp monthly drop in its ballooning trade surplus Tuesday and angrily rejected two U.S. complaints filed with the WTO over product piracy and market access for American movies, music and books.

LUKE, Md. — For years the residents of this economically distressed hollow in the Appalachians have watched textile mills, glass factories and tire makers close down one after the other. Now its lone remaining big factory — “the last man standing,” as the production manager at the paper mill here put it — is threatened by imports of cheaper paper made in China. We’re still the economic engine for this whole area,” said Scott Graham, the production manager, referring to the river valley and forested hills surrounding the mill. “But our operations cannot compete with these below-cost imports.” It is...

President Bush last week called on the nation to invest in new technology to reduce dependence on foreign oil. The president set specific targets for the U.S., calling for a 20% reduction in gasoline use over the next 10 years. He said that a boost in the use of alternative fuels such as ethanol would account for most of that reduction, cutting gasoline use by 15%. Stricter gas-mileage standards for vehicles, he said, should lead to the other 5% reduction. The president also proposed doubling the nation's strategic-petroleum reserves to hedge against oil-supply interruptions. Increased calls for energy independence come...

U.S. trade panel ends steel tariff Carmakers say move will cut costs By James P. Miller Tribune staff reporter Published December 15, 2006 In a move that cheered automakers but angered domestic steel producers, the U.S. International Trade Commission on Thursday eliminated most of its controversial tariffs on carbon-steel imports. The ITC's ruling brings an end to what has been an unusual, high-profile feud between two American smokestack industries battered and dramatically altered by global competition: Big Steel and its crucial customer, the auto industry. The commission's action will lower the price auto companies pay for steel, and bring a...

There are only a handful of products that Americans import that cannot be produced at home and therefore create jobs for Americans. Let's look at a few of them. We import cocoa from Ghana and coffee from African and Latin American countries. We import saffron from Spain and India and cinnamon from Sri Lanka. In fact, India produces 86 percent of the world tonnage of spices. There's absolutely no reason these products cannot be produced by Americans, and we could be cocoa, coffee and spices independent. You say, "Williams, that's crazy! We don't have the climate and soil conditions to...

Rep. Michael H. Michaud represents Maine's 2nd District in the U.S. Congress. America has a big problem. Each year, we import far more than we export. Because of this, we are now suffering from a massive and growing $726 billion dollar annual trade deficit. This stunning figure is over 6 percent of our output of goods and services or Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Historically, countries that run trade deficits in excess of 4 percent of GDP have faced serious economic difficulties. The United States is not an average country; we still have significant economic strength and resilience. However, the...

OK. Who outsourced Lou Dobbs’s dictionary to China? That has to be the only explanation for why CNN’s resident anti-free trader Lou Dobbs claimed a guest critical of the Bush administration’s trade policies was not a “protectionist.” During his July 24 “Lou Dobbs Tonight” interview with liberal (2005 ADA rating 100 out of 100) Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) about his new book “Take This Job and Ship It,” Dobbs praised the North Dakotan and urged viewers to pick up a copy of the senator’s anti-free trade manifesto. “Senator Byron Dorgan is no protectionist. In point of fact, he is calling...

China to cut tariff on cars, auto parts from July 1 Last Updated(Beijing Time):2006-06-15 17:29 China will further cut import taxes on some cars and auto parts as of July 1, the Ministry of Finance announced Thursday. With the approval of the Chinese government, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, has decided to lower the tariffs on cars, SUVs (sports utility vehicles or cross-country vehicles),and mini-buses from 28 percent to 25 percent, said the ministry. Meanwhile, the import taxes on auto parts, such as auto bodies, under-pans, medium and low emission gasoline engines, will be reduced to 10...

Sam Walton had a dream: find out what people want and sell it to them for less. His dream was a variant of Adam Smith’s assertion in The Wealth of Nations: “The sole purpose of all production is to provide the best possible goods to the consumer at the lowest possible price.” The variation stems from the qualifier “best possible”: Walton’s obsessive quest never extended to quality. And in the 230 years since Smith penned those famous words, society has learned to question his narrow vision of “the sole purpose of all production.” As books like this demonstrate, Wal-Mart is...

To find out why economists have cast Italy as the sick man of Europe, visit this dreary town of little factories huddled in the foothills of the Italian Alps. [...] What is different in Italy is that the economy — though famous for its supple leather handbags and full-bodied Tuscan wines — depends, to a greater extent than its European neighbors, on mom-and-pop manufacturers that produce everything from valves to mother-of-pearl buttons. [...] Italy's thousands of family-owned companies, the secret to its export success in the 70's and 80's, appear ill-suited to the demands of globalization. They make products that...

Smoot Hawley, Chinese Style By: George Gilder Forbes.com May 20, 2005 Original Article In his insightful new book, The World Is Flat, Tom Friedman of The New York Times, though generally disdainful of anything conservative, somehow brings himself to cite an exemplary Heritage Foundation study of U.S. companies with facilities in China. These firms are not an unhealthy set of "Benedict Arnolds," as they were quaintly dubbed by Sen. John Kerry during the last presidential campaign. They are the heart of the U.S. economy and the spearhead of global economic growth. As Friedman explains, these manufacturing outsourcers together generate...

The Commerce Department said Tuesday it will comply with a NAFTA panel's order to drastically cut U.S. duties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber. U.S. officials said they disagree with the rationale behind the ruling, but respect its authority. The decision, announced late Tuesday, means the United States will reduce the punitive duties, which average about 16 percent, to less than 1 percent. Separate antidumping tariffs averaging about 4 percent will not be affected. Despite its action, the Commerce Department said it retains its right to appeal the NAFTA ruling, which it considers unfair. "We start off with a premise...