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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Ron Paul the |
| 2008-04-11 |
| John J. Miller, National Review Ron Paul was one of the few Republicans to oppose freer trade with Colombia in yesterday's House vote. I know, I know: He thinks "free trade agreements" such as the pending one with Colombia are in fact "managed trade" and therefore unworthy of his libertarian principles. Whatever. The simple truth is that Paul and the rest of the House faced a decision to vote for or against reducing government-imposed barriers to the international exchange of goods and services. Paul voted with the protectionists. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #3 As far as I can gather, the US/Colombian free trade agreement will reduce tariffs on US goods sold in Colombia, easing access to the markets for such goods. It would also create some standards in labelling and advertising, and help develop more "indigenous" production of items sold in the United States by easing some restrictions on third-party suppliers. As stated by Anonymoose, the devil is in the details. The details in this case seem to allow both sides to benefit. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-04-11 18:34 |
| #2 Most goods from Columbia already come into the US free of tariffs and this bill would have dropped their tariffs on our products. |
| Posted by: Odysseus 2008-04-11 16:52 |
| #1 Paul has a point. Just because something is advocated as "free trade" does not mean that it has anything to do with free trade. The devil is in the details. Often, what is called "free trade" are agreements like "We will subsidize exports of (this product) from your country to ours, supporting your manufacturers of (this product), and in exchange, you will allow (a multinational corporation) to sell (another product), to balance the trade. We will also continue giving you billions against the drug trade." Often this ends up just hosing both the citizens and companies of both countries, while either a multinational or just a single national company makes huge profits. In other words, the furthest thing from "free trade". |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-04-11 13:12 |