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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (186010)	4/3/2004 12:05:06 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574786

How can that be when they can't grow any more food than what they do grow now? Because it is not true that they can't grow any more food then they do now. Yes some countries can not but overall they can grow more, and if they can export their food and cash crops to the US and Europe without restriction many of them will be able to afford things like fertilizers. They can't afford better farming methods now because those farming methods will not show a positive return. In any case if somehow they couldn't sell the food without the US trade barriers then the trade barriers are pointless. They either do nothing (so why have them?) or they cut off competition (and so do harm). First off, I think we started out this conversation talking about subsidies, not trade barriers. Secondly, all countries have trade barriers to protect certain industries. The world's economy is not a free market one nor is ours......so there will always be barriers and subsidies for the foreseeable future. Thirdly, where nations do practice modern farming techniques, they do compete very effectively with our farming industry........Chile and Argentina are two examples that come to mind. However, competing is expensive and many third world nations do not have a farm program to bring their farmers up to snuff.....like we and other countries do. Plus, just like with any industry you have to go where there is the least amount of competition. Chile doesn't grow wheat because there is tons of wheat being grown all over the world. It grows crops that are not available in the northern hemisphere during the winter like grapes and plums or it has a major wine producing industry because of its unique climate. Like with all industries, the global economy means you have to play smart. However, that aside, most of our winter fruit and vegetables here on the West coast come from Argentina and Chile. How do they avoid the barriers? The barriers aren't absolute, they just mean that you pay more for those fruits and vegetables. I pay the same price or nearly the same price as summer. I suspect Chile overcomes the trade barrier with cheaper labor. "There are some relatively advanced farms in poor countries," Where? More advanced than American farmers? How does "relatively advanced" become "more advanced then American farmers"? Again, which countries are relatively advanced? And its important that they be AS advanced as we are or they really can't compete.....even with cheap labor. It seems there are tariffs on many things beside just food. Yup. I'm against them as well. Its just that food subidies and tariffs and non-tarriff trade barriers are the current subject at hand. Also the governments intervention in this area is particularly strong. Another example of trade barriers that hurt both US consumers and poor countries is barriers in the textile industry. Well, then you must be happy with the increasing development of trade free zones like the EU. ted