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To: Enigma who wrote (25025)	12/29/1998 12:44:00 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 116764

Seems that people always talk about other people's tariffs - rarely their own? Absolutely E. And tariffs are often more stealthy than overt. Take for instance Japan's corner on the distribution network for goods which favors domestic products. Unless you spend the inordinate amounts of money necessary to purchase land and set up foreign operations, it can be very difficult, if not impossible to get your goods into that market as a competing force. Also, Europe and Japan face similiar cultural problems as they attempt to salvage their "mom & pop" agricultural operations faced with cheap US commodities. They protect these industries through subsidies aimed at propping up price competitiveness upon the backs of taxpayers. And we do exactly the same thing with many of our industries. But oftentimes we are forced into market subsidies/protectionisms (like steel and DRAM's) due to currency fluctuations and foreign dumping, not necessarily because we're attempting to artificially subsidize inefficiencies. Caveat Emptor: I fully realize that there have existed and do exist similiar situations where special interests have been able to manipulate the political system in order to subsidize inefficiencies, such as the payment in kind (PIK) program for farmers, milk price guarantees, and tobacco subsidies. I'm just asserting that the US has been the greatest force in global free trade since WWII, in spite of all of inequalities that exist. Regards, Ron