Silly Little Country

The Worst News of the Last Week

Manifestly, it is the death of the Doha Round if it is really true. (I read there is some attempt to shock it back into life, but without Europe this is sadly dead meat.)

Owen Barder examines the culpability here.

Of course, every country should abolish all tariffs, quotas and subsidies, unilaterally and immediately, in their own interests as well as everyone else’s. But in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of trade negotiations, we still talk about changes which would be in our own interest as “concessions”.

What is fatuous is that the rent-seeking special interests own the discussion in our own media in Canada (no guiltless party in this farce). It is very unusual to see anyone speaking out for the interest of consumers versus the various interest groups using the government to protect themselves from competition. Andrew Coyne is an unusual columnist on this front.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:13 PM