Alas Jim can't join the consensus, but fortunately Owen can. Nice one Barder!
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”.
Exactly, precisely, it's no kind of fundamentalism to say that, just non-extremist common sense.
"every country should abolish all tariffs, quotas and subsidies, unilaterally and immediately": well of course. But I'll bet Owen wouldn't agree with me that Governments should also abolish "aid". But I think they should - it's best left to individuals and charities.
Posted by: dearieme | August 03, 2006 at 10:50 AM
fwiw, Greg Mankiw (in a letter to Bernanke): You should be willing to explain the views of professional economists when there is a consensus. For example, like Greenspan, you should remind us about the benefits of free trade when the protectionists in Congress get restless—which they do often.
All i'm saying is that i'm unswayed by a theory that says some economic laws apply in some situation, and other economic laws apply in others - economic theory is a system of logic and therefore universal
Posted by: AJE | August 26, 2006 at 09:31 AM