From the UPI:
WTO finds some trade barriers in U.S.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The World Trade Organization, in its first report on U.S. trade policies in two years, said Friday that though the United States is a largely open economy, barriers still persist in important areas of trade.
According to the WTO report, "recent U.S. macroeconomic policy has been directed, increasingly successfully, towards recovering and sustaining growth, with benefits to the global economy, including through trade."
However, the report said that barriers facing other nations to gaining access to U.S. markets persist in a few, but important, areas in the U.S. economy. These include large agriculture subsidies, the recently ended steel tariffs and the ongoing protectionist tariff policies in the textiles and clothing sectors. The report added that these measures have distorted the U.S. market and "has burdened U.S. consumers, taxpayers and trade." More at link
Under the deregulatory GOP, you'd think we would have the freest trade polices on the planet. We do not. I think we rank around 6th or 7th in overall free trade. This is not a bad thing. Policies restrictive of trade generally only delay the inevitable. You cannot 'restrict' your economy into competition. It musy happen organically through innovation.
I don't fear globalization. I think it inevitable in a freer world. Of course, in the long run, the U.S. will be a lesser player on the world stage. It's simply a matter of extending the dynamics that are now in play. We are only a mass exporter of food and weapons. I'm referring to things that are actaully made here, rather than have the components made elsewhere and assembled here. Much of the 'value added' processes are done elsewhere.
There are ways to plan for outsourcing, a permanently crippled currency and the loss of our manufacturing base. This is not the stuff of fantasy. It is here and now. I have ideas as to how to flow with trends, and I'll write more as this trend accelerates.
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