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

[Imran Ahmed Shah]

Dear IGC Memebrs,
 
With reference to this discussion thread, I appreciate the statement (which is being referred as Global Governance) of the former president Clinton regarding the policies which resulted the farmers off the land and undercut Haiti's ability to feed itself. This statement is regarding the reduction of tariffs on rice imports, which reduced the rice prices in Haiti. This also provided short time benefit to the Haiti People to buy food on lower prices.
 
But how may policies reflected bad and how much lessons are learned to not to repeat in favor of the other world.
 
Are they going to charge higher tariffs and prices from the Haiti rice importers (onward) to create the stability, self sufficiency and to encourage local farmers to produce more rice crop? Have they returned back from the crises of natural disaster which happened in Jan 10? Are they self sufficient to decide and to afford grow the crop to full fill they requirements of the nation? 
 
The success of a nation is hidden in this truth to reduced their needs and only depend on the inland production, resources and skills. If all the developing countries follow this policy, they will become self sufficient.
However, Haiti has faced Natural Disaster and the remaining world has to support and help them and to promote them for their re-establishment. At this stage the trade policies should be totally relaxed for them.
1.      Do you know how much food, grains, wheat and rice are through away just to maintain the Consumer Prices,  
instead of helping poor people of the world, “What a waste: Britain throws away £10bn of food every year url ref. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/what-a-waste-britain-throws-away-16310bn-of-food-every-year-822809.html”.
 
It was batter to offer Haiti Farmers to produce food grains, wheat and rice to export and this movement could be strengthen by giving them export orders in advance to become biggest rice exporters of the world.
 
Regards
 
Imran Ahmed Shah
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."

Neo-liberal policies forced on Haiti

The Clinton administration forced Jean Bertrand Aristide to agree to cut
rice tariffs drastically when the US restored the Haitian president to power
in October 1994. Aristide, Haiti´s first democratically elected president,
had been overthrown by a US-backed military coup in 1991. In return for $770
million in international loans and aid, Aristide was required to agree to a
business-friendly "structural adjustment" program that aside from cutting
food tariffs, also included freezing the minimum wage, cutting the size of
the civil service and privatizing public utilities. (Aristide annoyed the US
by being slow to implement such policies making Bill Clinton´s apology this
month all the more surprising.)

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________________________________
From: michael gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Sent: Fri, 2 April, 2010 20:57:09
Subject: [governance] Clinton Admits: "Free" Trade is Harmful to 3rd World
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