I've been meaning to respond to one of Doug's missives from last week, but have neglected to do so. Doug asked (rhetorically? sarcastically?) whether folks really are opposed to increased international trade per se, citing the example of Japanese car manufacturers setting up production facilities in the U.S. and asking what was wrong with this activity. (Correct me if I'm misstating your question, Doug.) I don't know of anyone who opposes foreign investment per se. What I, for one, am concerned about, is the neoliberal/deregulatory impact of the international "trade" deals that are being negotiated today. One key deleterious effect of these pacts is that they are explicitly designed to prevent countries from imposing performance requirements (environmental, mandatory investment, job creation, etc.) on foreign companies. The fact that Japanese car companies are setting up show in the States can be attributed at least in part to the pressure from the U.S. government on Japanese car companies to reduce their imports of cars produced in Japan. A major reason for this pressure to reduce imports has been concern that the high level of Japanese imports was putting enormous downward pressure on the U.S. dollar. In other words, in this case Washington was de facto imposing a performance requirement on Japanese car manufacturers. Given its economic clout, the U.S. is in a position to do this unilaterally. But ironically, it is precisely this kind of activity -- forcing foreign companies to set up shop domestically if they want access to a country's domestic market -- that the new international "trade" deals are designed to prevent. Cheers, Sid Shniad
