Do you view the world from the perspective of a globalist? If you consider yourself a progressive you may
answer that the entire earth needs to be taken as a whole. But if you are a rational and reflective person, your reply should
always be conditional. If we are talking about an impending collision with a deadly asteroid, a planetary response would be
sensible. However, if the topic is world trade, a blanket universality of equivalence, defies reasonable judgment.
The character of economic transactions have as a valid goal the fulfillment and satisfaction of human necessities
and desires. If a need or want exists, the marketplace will seek to fill that demand. This principle crosses all cultural
boundaries and economic systems. In the most rigid of economic models, restrictions or unavailability may result, but the
attempt to satisfy basic requirements and cravings, is a primary component of our common human nature.
Trade and commerce is fundamental to the existence, betterment and gratification of society. Economic activity
generates the vitality and vigor that causes and achieves a functional community. There should be no question that the business
of trade, has the greatest potential to benefit all parties engaged in commercial activities. So what is the problem with
a world system designed to promote free trade among nations?
That question is the one that the proponents of the World Trade Organization would like you to accept. However,
it is a false proposition. At its focus, is an assumption that countries are equal and that they have an objective which will
serve the best interests of their inhabitants. The doctrine of free trade is based upon illusion, since the precision of the
Adam Smith “invisible hand” demands, that the market is realized through distinct decisions, made by individual
consumers. Choice is just as essential as profit is necessary to produce a viable economy.
Here again, the internationalist presents a fallacious design. The macro view that efficiency at the lowest
possible production cost is the paramount goal, violates the essential purpose of the business transaction. The customer may
see immediate gain in huge discounted pricing, but frequently overlooks that such value is temporary, and often ignore the
significance in the loss to domestic manufacturing. The globalist preaches the doctrine of low prices, while having the motivation
to cut costs, especially those for labor. Invariably the amount of profit is determined by the extent and quality of the competition.
When domestic enterprises are driven out of business, only those who moved off shore will do the selling.
Common sense and recent decades of experience prove beyond any doubt, that good paying jobs are the primary
American export. The WTO is based upon rules, calculated to steer the world economy, to accept unconstrained imports. Of course,
this policy works only for the low cost producer. How that measure is achieved and at what cost or contortions it takes to
reach that charge, is disregarded. What matters is strictly the unfettered flow of cheap goods into the biggest and most consumer
oriented markets available. Such a system is pure heaven for the monopolist. Definitely, this is not the capitalism in the
“Wealth of Nations”, and certainly doesn’t resemble the free enterprise that benefits all parties.
Most discussions about Free Trade are meant to deny the superiority of Fair Trade. Fairness in trade means
true long term advantage to both the producers and the consumers. Domestic manufacturing cannot survive under the barrier
of unlimited foreign dumping. However; when native industry is shielded, not from honest competition, but from contrived and
manipulated emulation; real wealth creation becomes possible.
The method of enjoining tariffs on foreign products is central to ensure our national survival. The Globalists understand that tariffs are the
answer in restoring economic independence. That is the reason that Free Trade is the cardinal goal of all internationalist.
When the WTO and every other trade scheme exhort interdependence, they are condemning our society to third world subsistence.
The inevitability of this reality is seen in every economic statistic and trade deficit report.
Average consumers may not be familiar with the economics of David Ricardo or the wisdom of Ludwig von Mises, but they all understand the made in China label. By now even the most sanguine have experienced a dose of reality.
A service economy can never maintain a free society. Americans are being relegated to menial jobs for minimum pay - all do
to the Free Trade fraud. The facts are clear. Toyota can build and sell their cars in the USA, but Ford needs and deserves
the reciprocal access to the Japanese market. The key prerequisite is to demand domestic manufacturing for products sold.
This primary objective can be augmented with sufficient tariffs for imports, that will balance the retail price with that
of domestic production. Revenue from such tariffs would offset internal consumer taxes.
"In its period of most rapid economic development, the half-century following the Civil War, the United States imposed import tariffs averaging around 40%, a level higher
than those in almost all of today's developing economies. During the 19th and 20th centuries, German and Japanese economic
development depended on managed trade, not free trade. Even the World Bank, in its 1993 report The East Asian Miracle, acknowledged
as much for the Japanese postwar boom. South Korea and Taiwan, whose key growth periods came during the 1960s and 1970s, faced
a world economy with far less capital mobility and engaged that world with managed trade policies - export subsidies, domestic-content
requirements, import-export linkages, and restrictions of capital flows, including direct foreign investment."
Free Trade policies destroy the incentive to produce in America. Living wages paid from equitable profits
is sound economics. You know this to be true. So do the globalist! Their objective is to diminish the autonomy of the United
States and force the merging of the remaining operations into select conglomerates, under the control of an international
cabal of billionaires. Central planners will scheme to replace national sovereign and self sustaining economies, with approved
suppliers operating under the Chinese paradigm of slave labor.
Fair Trade demands honest protection for home-made industry that creates the opportunity for citizens to be
prosperous consumers. Only the deceiver will argue against this remedy. What is to be feared when tariffs preserve the ability
to attain rewarding employment? If a choice was available to buy American made quality products at the same price as those
fashioned in alien sweat shops - wouldn’t you? Lower taxes, expanded high paid employment and greater independence all
seem like valid national economic objectives.
Only the Free Trader will sucker you into subsidizing your own demise with bargain gadgets and shoddy junk.
They will scam you with the trade advantage argument of a lower dollar value, as you grow weary in search of a decent job
and the lower purchasing value of your money. Americans deserve real prosperity. Solely with the renunciation of WTO economics
and the re-establishment of traditionally useful tariffs will the economy grow and flourish. Worldwide commerce will thrive,
when profits are spread in fair proportions creating new consumers, with the ability to buy our re-instituted quality exports.
There is no reason to fear Fair Trade, its the only road to bona fide affluence.
SARTRE - May 14, 2003
