[governance] Clinton Admits: "Free" Trade is Harmful to 3rd

[George Sadowsky]

The typical economist prelude to such a 
discussion is " ... all other things being equal 
..."

And much of the time, of course, they aren't.

George



At 1:02 PM -0400 4/3/10, John Curran wrote:
>Interesting article... There are indeed times when a more "efficient"
>distribution of resources via a free market doesn't actually create
>a more desirable outcome.  Economic models can be good in theory, but
>also need to be tempered in implementation with consideration of the
>potential impacts in the real world (and particularly with respect to
>discontiguous events).
>
>/John
>
>
>On Apr 2, 2010, at 11:57 AM, michael gurstein wrote:
>
>>  This isn't directly about Internet Governance but rather about overall
>>  issues underlying "Global Governance" of which Internet Governance is IMHO a
>>  subset hence I think that the below might be of some interest:
>>
>>  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/20/AR2010032001
>>  329_pf.html
>>
>>  Former US president admits trade policies were "a mistake"
>>
>>  During testimony before a US Senate committee three weeks ago, Clinton
>>  admitted that requiring Haiti to lower its tariffs on rice imports made it
>>  impossible for Haitian farmers to compete. The trade policy forced farmers
>>  off the land and undercut Haiti's ability to feed itself.
>>
>>  "It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not
>>  worked. It was a mistake," Clinton - now a UN special envoy to Haiti - told
>>  the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10. "I had to live
>>  everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice
>>  crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else."
>>
>>  Clinton´s apology attracted scant media attention in the US and none in
>>  Canada. It was included as part of an Associated Press news agency report
>>  that was published by the Washington Post on March 20. The AP report from
>>  Haiti´s earthquake-ravaged capital, Port au Prince, suggests world leaders
>>  are reconsidering trade and aid policies that make poor countries dependent
>>  on rich ones. It quotes UN aid official John Holmes as saying that poor
>>  countries, like Haiti, need to become more self-sufficient by rebuilding
>>  their own food production. "A combination of food aid, but also cheap
>>  imports have...resulted in a lack of investment in Haitian farming, and that
>>  has to be reversed," Holmes told AP. "That's a global phenomenon, but
>>  Haiti´s a prime example. I think this is where we should start."
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