Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lsuc.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcs!mnetor!lsuc!jimomura 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 ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura