Posts tagged…Subsidies
U.S. breaks G-20 promise on trade
Sun, May 24 2009
Just to remind you of what they said in April:
"We reaffirm the commitment made in Washington not to raise new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, including within existing WTO limits, not to impose new trade restrictions, and not to create new subsidies to exports." G-20 Communiqué emphasis added
By any measure the re-introduction of an export subsidy for the coddled U.S.…
Read more…Trade, cars and the great recession
Wed, May 06 2009
One of my favorite trade economists, Joe Francois, has been working with Julia Woerz on the reasons we have seen such a dramatic (minus 20%) fall in nominal trade values in the past two quarters when the fall in output over the same period was serious but much smaller (minus 5%).
"The problem is not trade finance, but rather finance, full stop. This recession has been characterised by a massive…
G20 communiqué an improvement
Fri, Apr 03 2009If you read the undertakings on trade and protectionism—with only a moderately skeptical eye—as a firm undertaking, it is not as "wooly" as the critics claim. On the contrary, it is a substantial improvement on other recent efforts and streets ahead of the wobbly paragraph 13 of their November 2008 communiqué.
The underlined phrases (my emphasis) are the significant parts. They make the…
Ruddmobile
Tue, Mar 17 2009"Committing $100,000 of taxpayer money to saving each job in the car industry was already a prodigious waste of money but this will look cheap compared with the cost of nationalising Holden. In time, Australians will come to rue the day Rudd decided to treat the car industry as an issue of systemic significance." Oliver Hartwich in The Australian
Finding data on WTO Agriculture agreements
Mon, Mar 09 2009The WTO's framework of trade agreements for agricultural policies is complex. The WTO Agreement on Agriculture (supplemented by rules in the GATT, the Subsidies Agreement and the SPS Agreement) regulates the external impacts of countries' border barriers and the impact of their internal market manipulation policies on external competition. It's impossible to make useful assessments of the…
Next round of trade protection (Part II)
Sun, Feb 22 2009In this earlier post, I looked at three of the 'old standbys' that are likely to provide governments with all the 'wiggle-room' they need to increase protection while remaining nominally compliant with their WTO obligations.
This time, two more oldies but goodies that are still more likely, in my view, to figure in the coming round of trade protection. These two threaten high levels of…
The next round of trade protection
Thu, Feb 19 2009
Will there be one? You bet! The only questions are: how soon and how big?
With employment numbers in both industrialized and industrializing countries falling, world markets seizing up as a consequence of the credit squeeze, icons of globalization like Dubai bleeding debt (and emigrants) and governments rushing out 'stimulus' packages to prop up domestic demand, the scene is set for some…
EU incentives for milk production
Sun, Jan 25 2009
The re-introduction of intervention-buying and export subsidies for milk products in the EU comes after the steady fall of EU milk/milk-product prices to near the (undistorted) world market price over the past decade. The 'gap' between the distorted EU price and the undistorted world price is the 'nominal rate of assistance' (NRA) to EU milk that can be plotted in the Agricultural Incentives…
Export subsidies: there they go again
Sun, Jan 25 2009Demonstrating, once again, its cynical regard for the letter of its obligations, the EC Commission has decided to reinstate dairy export subsidies that are primed to lock-in the low world dairy prices that are allegedly their rationale.
"The European Commission has announced plans to artificially boost prices by buying up 139,000 tonnes of diary products at a cost to the public purse of £237…
Now it’s a competition
Wed, Jan 21 2009"The French government said on Tuesday that it would earmark up to euro;6bn ($7.8bn, pound;5.5bn) to a rescue plan for its car industry hit by plunging demand, the credit crunch and a decline in competitiveness."nbsp;nbsp;from: Financial Times
Every new bailout devalues the last by increasing production of cars that need taxpayer funding.
Mandarin or doublespeak?
Tue, Dec 23 2008
OK. Here's a little Christmas Quiz. Not hard, I promise
First, read this inspiring quote from our Great Helmsman as he rouses the unions with some hearty advice and a lovely big cheque for $180m of your money. He's giving the money to them because… well, it's a Great Australian Tradition to give big chunks of money to the motor vehicle industry when they ask for it and, after all, it's only a tiny…
EC cooling on Global Warming?
Tue, Dec 16 2008"Each of the 35,000 solar jobs in Germany, for instance, is subsidized to the tune of €130,000. According to estimates by the Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research, green subsidies will cost German electricity consumers nearly €27 billion in the next two years." extract from: Benny Peiser in the WSJ