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From: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: free trade
Message-ID: <819@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 29-Sep-85 12:41:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: lsuc.819
Posted: Sun Sep 29 12:41:25 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 15:20:04 EDT
References: <2518@watcgl.UUCP> <13@ubc-cs.UUCP> <2530@watcgl.UUCP> <19@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura)
Distribution: can
Organization: Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
Lines: 50
Summary: Unemployment & free trade


     Jim, you mentioned the strikingly higher unemployment figure in
Canada and the significance of that is being missed by a lot of people
in favour of free trade.  The proponents of free trade forget a lot
of unhappy facts about industry and in partcular multinationals and
big governments.

     The US government and State governments subsidize industry in the
US.  Anybody who doesn't know this hasn't been looking (deliberately?).
When jobs are at stake, the Fed. Gov. can and often does give tax
relief to industries and sometimes actual funding.  Canada, from what
I've heard does *less* of this.  Some of the best places to locate
industry right now are the US Southern states (Tennessee, Alabama).
Get in touch with various Chambers of Commerce and State industrial
commissions and find out why.  This sort of card stacking works.  Many
industries *are* locating south of the boarder *specifically* due to
the insentives.  You can look at border import duties as a similar
card stacking attempt on a national scale.  I see no moral difference.

     The current outlook is that the US wants to dictate our Patent
and Copyright and other Industrial and Intellectual property laws.
That's the real price of free trade.  Loss of our independence.  No
doubt.  Will we gain jobs?  Maybe in the short term.  Remember two
other things tend to happen.  The US people feel it is their duty to
buy American when the chips are down.  Currently, this may have
some effect on our sales.  If you don't believe me take a trip through
the US and talk to people.  Listen to what they say to each other.
My father spends the winter in Florida and his American freinds
berate *him* (a Canadian!) for not buying US products!  And believe
me Canada is *not* buying local in their eyes.  A few years ago
there was an uproar because people found out that trucks by the big
3 were often Canadian products and they wanted these trucks to be
specifically Advertised as Foreign products--to be avoided.

     When the crunch comes, multinationals are influenced to
maintain US employment at the cost of foreign employment.  This
can be done by quotas.  There are cases where it is done by dumping
US product on Canadian subsidiaries.  Again, there is also tax
siphoning.  These are hard to prove and in the case of Tax siphoning
illegal (I think dumping is illegal in these cases, but I'm not
sure--I've never checked).

     Personally, I think we can have "freer" trade, but caution is
wise.

                                     Cheers! -- Jim O.

-- 
James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
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