Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Switchboard >

Steel yerselves

13:40 / 06.03.02

Hi there,

You probably already know this, but the US just passed huge tarrifs on importing forgien steel. The EU is taking this to the WTO, Blair is threatening a "trade war" and our other trading partners are up in arms.

Did this come out of left field or what? After 10+ years of pushing for free trade, a republican president is passing trade tariffs to defend union jobs?

This is a big big story at BBCi's website.

On CNN it doesn't merit a line mention on the front page, so I rather doubt it is a smokescreen for Enron or US forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Anyone feel really strongly about this or think it is just weird?

-Jesse

13:50 / 06.03.02

Of course this is rank hypocrisy from a nation that oftens regrets the sacrifices that developing nations have to make in order to accomodate free trade. But it comes as little surprise to many who see free market and free trade policy championed by the haves only as long as it is beneficial to them.

As to Tony "lap dog" Blair starting a trade war with the US - I dont think he'll be in power long enough to find his backbone. If it goes to the WTO and they support the EU on this (lots of hypotheticals) then the US can just ignore the judgement. Thats what being the only super-power is about.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

13:58 / 06.03.02

From The Guardian:

quote:This has bruised Mr Blair, who has been America's best friend in troubled times, but who is also Europe's most eloquent exponent of free trade, free markets and economic reform.

My share tips? Sell steel, buy KY jelly. The entire EU is about to get shafted by Bush.

14:03 / 06.03.02

I think it's ridiculous. Unfortunately the only thing the EU can really do is (as LA has said) go to the WTO, and any investigation that results from that will take far too long for the judgement to ahve any effect on reality.

It's another of those things that makes me jest feel faintly ill (as opposed to violently ill) becasue I can't see what on earth can be done about it - the US is just too powerful. Judging by their reaction to EU attempts to ban GM food imports, they won't stand for any attempts at retaliation either. So there's not much that can be done. What can you do with a superpower that doesn't even *want* to work with international law and agreements?

14:05 / 06.03.02

Plus it looks like Bush is looking to fire up another cold war w/ Russia:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000016451mar05.story?coll=la-headlines-business

<<<The Russian government said that as of Sunday, it would begin banning imports of U.S. poultry. It attributed the action to concerns about the use of potentially carcinogenic disinfectants by U.S. processors. But the announcement came only two days after Russian steelmakers asked Moscow to block U.S. chicken imports if Washington erected big barriers to Russian steel.

A Russian trade official insisted Monday that there was no linkage between the two issues. But he acknowledged that the poultry ban by "coincidence" might affect the kind of restrictions Bush assigns to Russian steel.

"I think maybe it would have some impact," said Aleksey Yegortsev, a representative of the Russian Trade Mission in San Francisco. "Russian steelmakers are suffering from American laws."

The ban would have serious implications for the U.S. poultry industry, which employs more people than does the steel industry. Russia is the largest foreign buyer of U.S. products, accounting for more than a third of exports and 8% of total production, according to the National Chicken Council.>>>

Had no idea they ate so much chicken over there.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

14:08 / 06.03.02

quote:Originally posted by invix:
Had no idea they ate so much chicken over there.

Better to eat it than be it.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

14:18 / 06.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Kit-Cat Club:
Unfortunately the only thing the EU can really do is (as LA has said) go to the WTO, and any investigation that results from that will take far too long for the judgement to ahve any effect on reality.

And even if such an investigation could be done overnight, we all know how fair and unbiased the WTO is likely to be when it comes to American vs European interests.

14:20 / 06.03.02

Pre-cisely.

14:21 / 06.03.02

But you are what you eat.

I find it interesting that Congress is never mentioned in these articles. I had no idea the President could unilaterally move tariffs up and down like this.

Makes me rethink my vote for Nader.

And what the hell is a Republican President doing bowing to the support of unions? Jeez, 1st Clinton moves up with free trade, now Bush wants protectionist policys for unions. The partys are all switched around.

Besides all that, housing is one of the few growth sectors we have here. An increase in the price of rebar can only hurt our economy. What the hell is with this?

-Jesse

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:13 / 06.03.02

Re: Blair getting made to look foolish - I can't decide whether I'm glad that all that "staunch friend Great Britain" crap has come back to bite him on the arse, or just sickened by the way that he'll happily support any bombing, killing, maiming, that sort of thing, if the Americans want to do it (and give them an added air of "rationality", to some Brits at least, in the process) - but raise the price of British steel and the worm turns. Odious shit of a man.

Labour woman on Newsnight the other night was asked whether the US is being ungrateful by doing this after Tony cheered them on so loudly in the "war on terror". Paraphrased response:

"The two are completely unconnected. We supported the war in Afghanistan because it was the right thing to do. But we are bitterly disappointed by this news..."

pointless and uncalled for

15:20 / 06.03.02

Great, the US gives Canada the shaft on logging tarrifs and then takes it to the rest of the world on some other commodity.

15:43 / 06.03.02

Maybe you should move to Mexico, H, they are excluded from these tariffs.

18:10 / 06.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Rev. Jesse:
What the hell is a Republican President doing bowing to the support of unions?

Its an election year. And the Brits don't get a vote.

18:23 / 06.03.02

Neither do the US citizens.

13:55 / 07.03.02

Aside from being yet another example of U.S. hypocrisy, is this such a big deal? Does "free trade" even exist outside of the rhetoric of the U.S. and the E.U.? Is "free trade" a good thing for developing economies?

According to Slate.com, according to internationally accepted free trade agreements, tariffs are acceptable in certain cases. If you're interested,
click here.

What's wrong, in the abstract, about a country protecting domestic jobs+industries? Nothin'. Hopefully, as Russia did, other countries will take the U.S.'s cue and start protecting themselves instead of bowing to the "free trade" mantra.

14:02 / 07.03.02

But, but, if they try and do that, the US govt will shop them to the WTO for it...

14:06 / 07.03.02

It is precisely the hypocrisy which is objectionable. Developing countries are often forced into accepting free trade, by the IMF for example, with the effect that multinationals gain a strong foothold in their economies. Great, you might say, except that it is often hard to see any benefit to the host country, while all too easy to see the benefit to the multinational and developed countries behind them.

In this context the free trade rhetoric is a way of justifying the exploitation of the poor by the rich under the guise of some economic strategy. The erection of trade barriers shows how this strategy is dumped when it ceases to be beneficial for the US.

14:17 / 07.03.02

It doesn't make me quite as angry as GATT though - that really does take the biscuit, and showcases exactly how corporations are more powerful than even the most representative government...

14:31 / 07.03.02

Right some side of head talking now...

Didn't the WTO recently rule in the favor of the EU against the US over a recent trade dispute? IIRC The EU 'won' the right to impose sanctions that would have negatively affected an ailing US economy even further, which would then have affected their own economies in a less than posative way...

15:02 / 07.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Lurid Archive:
It is precisely the hypocrisy which is objectionable. Developing countries are often forced into accepting free trade, by the IMF for example, with the effect that multinationals gain a strong foothold in their economies.

Another sad thing is that sometimes the IMF doesn't even have to force free trade. Just convince the congresses and presidents with promisses of political benefits, and you have'em in your hands (and the whole country as a consequence).

The "FTAA" (I'm not sure of the name) is a free trade agreement set to start in 2005 between all countries of the americas, excluding Cuba. It's not hard to guess who'll be loosing with it, but that's not how our politicians think - as long as they please the american government, everything is valid.

But there's worse: sometimes the states (Brasil's divided in states) are capable of tax-fight each other to see who attracts more plants of multinationals into their territories. There are cases (not uncommon)in which the corporations didn't have to pay taxes at all over profits.

One state once atracted a GM factory by lending money from the federal funds (BNDES, brazillian version of the american Federal Reserve) to help pay for the factory's construction costs! We're talking about a company that profited U$160 billion a year before.

Oh, god, sorry. It's just that is so much absurdity, I could go on and on forever.

[ 07-03-2002: Message edited by: screamin' pacha ]

16:38 / 11.03.02

You can always hope that when things get this absurd and awful, that... ok, not likely.... but that countries will start pulling out of the WTO, GATT, FTAA, etc.

The whole globalisation/liberalisation of trade thing has been on the up for a while now. Perhaps this is the start of its decline, all because the USA wouldn't play even slightly fair?