With the World Trade talks
stalled for a decade, trade barriers have been increasing.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack recently told a conference in Nashville. Tenn., that the U.S. faced
600 agriculture trade barriers when the Doha Round of negotiations began 10
years ago.
"Last year, we
confronted nearly 1,500 trade barriers," Vilsack said.
At the same time, there have never been so many bilateral free-trade negotiations underway, including the weekend announcements from Prime Minister Stephen Harper that negotiations will begin soon with Japan and Thailand.
Bilateral talks have become popular because big countries can bully weaker trading partners, something they have more difficulty achieving in World Trade negotiations. Guess where Canada's clout fits in negotiations with the likes of the European Union and Japan.
But everybody is more likely to keep foolish agriculture subsidies and trade barriers in these negotiations among the wealthy nations. It's the poor who want those reduced and continue to suffer.
Vilsack also boasted that U.S.
agriculture earns a trade surplus whereas the overall economy has been running
a large and persistent trade deficit. What he didn't mention is the multi-billion-dollar subsidies to rice and cotton growers so the U.S. can export those harvests.
The U.S. agriculture trade surplus hit a record
$42 billion in 2011, Vilsack said. But trade barriers are a growing concern, he
added.
