Re: Ashish' post dated November 21 ---One version of free trade

["MV" <maxv@vsnl.com>]

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IPI_Marker

> From: "Ashish Hanwadikar" <ashish_hanwadikar@yahoo.com>
>
> Hi Venkat,
> > "Free trade" does not do good for all people.Some
> > people are always going to get hit, very badly- the
> > weak.
> > As a student of history, I haven't come across any
> > reference - where the weak nation/people benefitted
> > from "free trade".
>
> As a student of history, you must have definitely came across lots of
> weak nations/people who got benefitted by import duties, huge
> subsidizes, high taxes, huge and intruding beauracracy! Isn't it?
>
> If "Free trade" is not going to do good for some weak people, people
> like you and me who are concerned about this are always free and
> welcome donate some of our wealth to this weak people. We can help
them
> feed and give them training for suvival in a "Free trade" regime.
> I don't understand why Govt. physical force is seen as the best way to

> help week people? Even if Govt.'s force is a good way why not have a
> simple wealth transfer through combination of taxes and vouchers? Why
> bother leving high import tarriff and why have myrid of regulations
> which only benefit special interest groups?

Who are these special interest groups? What is their
interest in govt regulations? Please tell us.....

>
> Regards,
> Ashish
> --- Venkat Kesaraju <kevenkat@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
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> > Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate
> > it!
> >
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> > IPI_Marker
> >
> > Once again Mr.VenuGopal asked the right questions.
> >
> > Yes- we need to deal with  issues case by case
> > and always need to keep our interests in mind.
> >
> > There is no cure-all method or "ism".We need not
> > sacrifice ourselves for the sake of cause or "ism" -
> > all kinds of them.
> > "Pure" Communists/socialists and whole lot of others
> > tried to do just that- upholding only the "pure"cause
> > while destroying everything else (including
> > themselves).
> >
> > Are votaries of capitalism leading us in to the same
> > path too?
> > I can only pray that free trade-ism should not gain
> > ground like other isms.
> >
> > "Free trade" does not do good for all people.Some
> > people are always going to get hit, very badly- the
> > weak.
> >
> > As a student of history, I haven't come across any
> > reference - where the weak nation/people benefitted
> > from "free trade".
> >
> >  Still the debate goes on....as it should...for our
> > benefit :)
> >
> > Thanks
> > Venkat
> >
> >
> >
> > --- venugopal <gvvs@nird.ap.nic.in> wrote:
> > >
> >
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> > > Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it,
> > > and propagate it!
> > >
> >
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> > > IPI_Marker
> > > Hello Ashish,
> > > Are you suggesting opening up imports while the
> > > developed countries
> > > continue
> > > giving huge agricultural subsidies to their farmers?
> > > What about the
> > > TRIPS?
> > > How would these things possibly promote free trade?
> > > Which are the stupid
> > >
> > > regulations? Can you identify some of them? Perhaps
> > > they can be dealt
> > > with
> > > case by case. In this post, I want to quote from an
> > > article about
> > > Stiglitz.
> > > Of course, all this may or may not be applicable to
> > > India's situation.
> > > Nevertheless, it gives some idea of the picture:
> > >
> > > Nobel Prize winning economist Stiglitz, who was
> > > earlier Chief Economist
> > > of
> > > the World Bank is reported to have admitted that
> > > before prescribing
> > > country-specific strategy, the World bank team
> > > conducted thorough
> > > investigations. These investigations " consist of
> > > close inspection of a
> > > nation's 5-star hotels. It concludes with the Bank
> > > staff meeting some
> > > begging, busted finance minister who is handed a
> > > 'restructuring
> > > agreement'
> > > pre-drafted for his 'voluntary' signature"
> > > It is also interesting that each Nation's economy is
> > > individually
> > > analysed.
> > > But the same set of 4 prescriptions are given to
> > > everybdoy. 1)
> > > Privatisation: " Step One is Privatization - which
> > > Stiglitz said could
> > > more
> > > accurately be called, 'Briberization.' Rather than
> > > object to the
> > > sell-offs
> > > of state industries, he said national leaders -
> > > using the World Bank's
> > > demands to silence local critics - happily flogged
> > > their electricity and
> > >
> > > water companies. "You could see their eyes widen" at
> > > the prospect of 10%
> > >
> > > commissions paid to Swiss bank accounts for simply
> > > shaving a few billion
> > > off
> > > the sale price of national assets."
> > > 2)"Step Two of the IMF/World Bank one-size-fits-all
> > > rescue-your-economy
> > > plan
> > > is 'Capital Market Liberalization.' In theory,
> > > capital market
> > > deregulation
> > > allows investment capital to flow in and out.
> > > Unfortunately, as in
> > > Indonesia
> > > and Brazil, the money simply flowed out and out.
> > > Stiglitz calls this the
> > >
> > > "Hot Money" cycle. Cash comes in for speculation in
> > > real estate and
> > > currency, then flees at the first whiff of trouble.
> > > A nation's reserves
> > > can
> > > drain in days, hours. And when that happens, to
> > > seduce speculators into
> > > returning a nation's own capital funds"
> > > 3."Step Three: Market-Based Pricing, a fancy term
> > > for raising prices on
> > > food, water and cooking gas. This leads,
> > > predictably, to
> > > Step-Three-and-a-Half: what Stiglitz calls, 'The IMF
> > > riot.' The IMF riot
> > > is
> > > painfully predictable. When a nation is, "down and
> > > out, [the IMF] takes
> > > advantage and squeezes the last pound of blood out
> > > of them. They turn up
> > > the
> > > heat until, finally, the whole cauldron blows up,"
> > > as when the IMF
> > > eliminated food and fuel subsidies for the poor in
> > > Indonesia in 1998.
> > > Indonesia exploded into riots, but there are other
> > > examples - the
> > > Bolivian
> > > riots over water prices last year and this February,
> > > the riots in
> > > Ecuador
> > > over the rise in cooking gas prices imposed by the
> > > World Bank. You'd
> > > almost
> > > get the impression that the riot is written into the
> > > plan. (....and by
> > > riots
> > > I mean peaceful demonstrations dispersed by bullets,
> > > tanks and
> > > teargas...) "
> > > 4."Now we arrive at Step Four of what the IMF and
> > > World Bank call their
> > > "poverty reduction strategy": Free Trade. This is
> > > free trade by the
> > > rules of
> > > the World Trade Organization and World Bank,
> > > Stiglitz the insider likens
> > >
> > > free trade WTO-style to the Opium Wars. "That too
> > > was about opening
> > > markets," he said. As in the 19th century, Europeans
> > > and Americans today
> > > are
> > > kicking down the barriers to sales in Asia, Latin
> > > American and Africa,
> > > while
> > > barricading our own markets against Third World
> > > agriculture. In the
> > > Opium
> > > Wars, the West used military blockades to force open
> > > markets for their
> > > unbalanced trade. Today, the World Bank can order a
> > > financial blockade
> > > just
> > > as effective - and sometimes just as deadly.
> > > Stiglitz is particularly emotional over the WTO's
> > > intellectual property
> > > rights treaty (it goes by the acronym TRIPS, more on
> > > that in the next
> > > chapters). It is here, says the economist, that the
> > > new global order has
> > >
> > > "condemned people to death" by imposing impossible
> > > tariffs and tributes
> > > to
> > > pay to pharmaceutical companies for branded
> > > medicines. "They don't
> > > care,"
> > > said the professor of the corporations and bank
> > > loans he worked with,
> > > "if
> > > people live or die."
> > > By the way, don't be confused by the mix in this
> > > discussion of the IMF,


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