O Intermitente
(So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye)

quinta-feira, janeiro 20, 2005

Free Trade Vs Fair Trade

Excerto de um artigo de Benn Steil e Russell Lewis na National Review (1994)

Support for free trade in the developed world is in reality giving way to a multitude of dubious conceptions of "fair" trade. Free trade is now judged to be fair trade only when foreign traders meet certain "standards." There are a variety of new and imaginative charges of "dumping," sanctions against which are said to be justified in order to protect standards at home. Ostensibly to construct a "level playing field" for international trade, the ever-growing body of fair-trade lobbies is laying the groundwork for a new web of supranational regulation, which, if not contained, has the potential to generate enormous international friction, stifle innovation, and damage prospects for world growth. The fair-trade lobbies are not actually concerned with leveling playing fields, but with leveling up their competitors' production costs so as to protect their high-cost producers.

posted by Miguel Noronha 2:47 da tarde