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Politics : World Affairs Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (2350)	10/11/2002 4:29:46 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3959

Re: Do you think if the United States reformed their corporate welfare program for farming, the Europeans might stand a chance of doing the same? Len, I've already told you what's wrong with the EU's agricultural extravangaza... The US can AFFORD to subsidize its farmers since it doesn't hurt the rest of the US workforce. Contrariwise, Europe's seven million farmers (thrice as much as the US on much smaller farming superficies) are an economic burden to the entire EU bloc. Did you hear about Germany's decision to scrap the Neue Markt by 2003? Do you realize what it means? Do you know that it was destined to be a European Nasdaq?? Does the SEC intend to pull the plug on the Nasdaq and ask MSFT, ORCL, etc to be listed on the NYSE as from January 2003? So, the question is not for Europe to wait until the US changes its farm policy. It's up to Europe to turn things around NO MATTER what the US is doing. EU pays the price for farm subsidies Thomas Fuller International Herald Tribune Wednesday, June 26, 2002 Discord over aid clouds expansion PARIS [...] It remains a little-known fact among West Europeans that food prices are 44 percent higher in the European Union than they would be without the EU's farm subsidy and market intervention program. Because of a web of tariffs and quotas, milk costs 70 percent more than it would without the policy, beef 221 percent more and sugar 94 percent more, according to calculations by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Yet, when the European Commission polled 16,000 people last spring about their attitudes toward the Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP, as the farm program is known, half of the respondents said they did not know it existed. It was a remarkable finding considering that Europe's farm policy directly affects Europeans' wallets more than any other EU program. In addition to higher food prices, EU citizens finance the Brussels agricultural budget of E45 billion, or $43.7 billion, a year through various taxes. Today, the EU faces a crossroads in its four-decades-old farm policy. The planned admission of 10 countries into the Union in 2004 will increase by half the number of farmers in the EU. Poland, the largest country scheduled to join, has more farmers than France and Germany combined. Enlargement presents EU nations with a dilemma: If they subsidize East European farmers at the same level they do West European farmers, they risk breaking their budget. But if they withhold subsidies from the new members, as several EU governments are urging, they risk creating an EU with different rules for East and West. [...] iht.com