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

Mon Apr 5 20:28:36 EDT 2010

Roxanna,

Could you please send me these papers and documents as well.

On 4/6/10, Roxana Goldstein <goldstein.roxana at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Milton,
>
> I come from a developing country -Argentina-, and from a region full of
> underdeveloped sectors -Latin America-.
>
> There are many studies -economical, political, sociological, cultural, etc-,
> carried out by the most prominent international organisations and
> institutions such as ECLAC, IADB, etc. which affirm and conclude and advice
> on the catastrofic impacts that market liberalisation  policies have had in
> the region. Meaning this that perhaps liberalisation is not bad in itself,
> but that the policies that have been pushed in the region -under the
> globalisation process-, have produced very bad impacts specially on human
> development.
>
> I know that this is off topic for the list, so I suggest that I can send you
> many documents that support what I am saying here to your private mail, if
> you wish.
>
> Best regards,
> Roxana
>
>
>
>
>
> 2010/4/4 Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu>
>
>> Gurstein:
>> Clinton didn't "admit" that free trade was bad for "3rd world countries"
>> he
>> stated that it was bad for Haitian rice farmers. Which it may well have
>> been
>> - some of them are not competitive. Farmers have been moved "off the land"
>> in every developing economy; typically that's part of the development
>> process.
>>
>> Always missing from the free trade critics perspective is the harms done
>> to
>> the 70-80% of the population who pay more for rice because of the trade
>> protectionism. So, how much more should all those poor people be forced to
>> pay for food so that the economy can conform to romantic notions of yeoman
>> farmers and self-sufficiency?
>>
>> While the emotional impact of this article trades on the Haiti earthquake
>> disaster, I have trouble understanding how total dependence on local
>> sources
>> of food production protects you against a local earthquake. I guess people
>> will use anything to milk such things to support their favored political
>> agenda.
>>
>> The idea that a small island economy such as Haiti can be
>> "self-sufficient"
>> in _anything_ is worth treating critically, if your target is developed
>> country standards of living. It reminds me of the crappy nonsense American
>> politicians like to say about making us "self-sufficient in oil." This
>> plays
>> well in any election even though everyone knows that it's utter nonsense
>> and
>> will never happen. How about maintaining good relations with other
>> countries
>> and paying fair prices for things, instead of seeking an artificial
>> "national" self-sufficiency?
>>
>> Or maybe we should make the state of New York self-sufficient in oil,
>> food,
>> etc. and stop trading with the rest of the world. That'll do our economy a
>> world of good.
>>
>> To add icing to the cake, ARIN's Curran agrees with a protectionist trade
>> policy - which would be disastrous if taken very far - because it suits
>> his
>> very short term and narrow agenda of justifying ARIN's centralized control
>> of internet resources. Talk about a tail wagging a dog....
>>
>> --MM
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: John Curran [mailto:jcurran at arin.net]
>> > Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 1:02 PM
>> > To: michael gurstein
>> > Cc: governance at lists.cpsr.org
>> > Subject: Re: [governance] Clinton Admits: "Free" Trade is Harmful to 3rd
>> >
>> > 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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