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[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Spanky
Environmental and Labour standards are not an "aspect" or anything else to do with free trade. That is political double speak. The only time Environmental or Labour standards have anything to do with free trade is when they hamper free trade. Any environmental or labor standards we put on a free trade agreement is simply us trying to get another country to increase its regulation. We are telling them if you don't implement these laws you don't get to trade with us. Without the trade agreement those laws would not be there. So the status quo is the laws don't exist. If you pass the free trade pact without the riders those laws will not change and you will have free trade. So you increase free trade. You don't need those rules to have free trade. If you pass the free trade agreement, plus those riders, you may have in your opinion a better agreement but the agreement isn't any more free.




I wasn't ignoring you. It just did not occur to me that you considered including environmental riders and labor riders as a way of reducing NTBs. So you thought with out these provision you would have more NTBs and therefore less free trade. But no one seriously argues that these provisions reduce NTBs. Environmental and labor riders are NTBs but most people consider them good NTBs. The Financial Times guy, or every other person you have cited, has not said that Environmental or albour rules reduce NTBs.

Can we agree that environmental and labor riders to a free trade agreement do not reduce the amount of NTBs but in fact make the agreement less free.




I would not agree with that.



I don't know about level the playing field but subsidies are a distortion. But they hurt the country providing them just as much as other countrys. In fact the European CAP benefits us in certain way because the European tax payer is paying money so we get cheaper food. They are paying part of our food bill.



You lost me there. I don't understand what you mean.
This agreement


Labor laws and environmental law are classic NTBs. Most of the WTO court decisions are reviewing such laws to see if there are really to protect the environment or they are they to protect domestic industry.




CAFTA countries will have much better access to our markets. Thereby increasing the standard of living of those countrys and making the countrys more stable. Our consumers will have cheaper goods freeing up more discretionary spending which will lead to more growth and more jobs. I don't know enough about the labor and environmental riders to know if they are really just excuses to protect our domestic market. But since the entire business community is behind the agreement I will assume that they do not.

this reads like something you have to have read books to get. Big board material?