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Aid “for Trade” is pointless amid corruption

By Timothy Cox
January 5th, 2010 at 12:35 pm | 2 Comments | Posted in Economics, International Development

africacorruptionWhile funds continue to be pumped into Africa through Aid for Trade programmes (to the tune of $9.5 billion in 2007), African governments continue to stifle their own businesses by imposing restrictions upon the movement of goods through the region.

A recent article in the Vanguard News (Lagos) details how debilitating delays to traffic are caused by Nigerian government officials extorting money, in the form of taxes and fines, from traders. It’s a common story, has even become a stereotype of much of the continent, yet sadly remains true. This heavy handed government action renders Nigerian businesses uncompetitive–delaying their goods and increasing their costs compared to foreign competitors.

Historically, the response of the government in Nigeria has been to increase import duties to “protect” their domestic industries. This results in higher prices for the average Nigerian as they have to pay more for their goods and services. The sad irony is that the reason many Nigerian businesses aren’t competitive in the first place is because of these detrimental government interventions in their business activities. Thus the vicious cycle continues–businesses crippled by their own governments plead for further protection against competition from abroad.

African governments need to stop looking to aid agencies for hand-outs and start allowing domestic companies to do their good honest business.

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GUEST POST: at Copenhagen, beware “green” protectionism

By admin
December 1st, 2009 at 2:15 pm | 2 Comments | Posted in Economics

dusty_kidWith all eyes on the UN summit at Copenhagen this month, keen observers are wondering whether collaborations are possible to mitigate climate change. Yet some proposals would do more harm than good, with “green” protectionism the most dangerous of all.

These are proposals to permit trade restrictions on the grounds that they will help to prevent climate change–a sadly misleading theory, which has predictably gained support already from uncompetitive industries and other vested interests have jumped on the bandwagon.

In our petition against these measures, the Freedom to Trade campaign explains:

“Trade enables specialisation, which results in the development of new technologies and leads to the creation of wealth. In the past two decades, trade has enabled over a billion people to escape poverty. Trade is the most powerful weapon in humanity’s armoury to fight poverty and environmental ills, including climate change. Trade restrictions are not desirable, nor are they an effective means of addressing climate change.”

Ongoing health disasters that some fear will be accentuated by climate change are already a reality today for millions of people–as a result of poverty, imbedded by oppression and trade restrictions.  Every thirty seconds a child dies of malaria, an entirely preventable and curable disease.  Seventeen thousand people in poor countries die every day from respiratory or diarrhoeal illnesses.

To instil today’s disasters by encouraging barriers to trade that are already preventing people in poor countries from lifting themselves out of poverty is madness. Please sign our petition against this phoney cure, and send a message to the politicians in Copenhagen that trade and wealth are our best weapons to adapt to a changing climate.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE: http://bit.ly/1mu46P

Alec van Gelder is Project Director of the Freedom to Trade campaign and writes on trade for publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Sydney Morning Herald.

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Buy *Insert Nation State Name* Sweeps the Globe

By Julian Harris
June 17th, 2009 at 12:35 pm | 4 Comments | Posted in Economics

buybritishNumerous times have I moaned about Barack Obama’s protectionist instincts, manifested overtly in the “Buy American” scheme, and covertly in many surreptitious barriers to trade.

Alas, this little misguided craze is catching on throughout the planet with various government interventions even copying the branding.

In the Philippines, a new law forces state-funded organisations to “Buy Filipino,” as well as outlining plans for subsidisation, tax exemptions and explicit favouritism when selecting companies that win government contracts.

Meanwhile “Buy Aussie” is kicking off in the state of New South Wales, which would similarly force authorities to give preference to domestic firms.

Pertinently, today is the 79th anniversary of the passing of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in the USA – arguably the most destructive protectionist bill of all time, which resulted in a tide of similar measures entrenching the global Great Depression.

Humans, they learn slowly, and so we seem to be heading the same way again – albeit, admittedly, to a lesser extreme.

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Creeping protectionism

By Julian Harris
March 26th, 2009 at 5:59 pm | Comments Off on Creeping protectionism | Posted in Economics

In the run up to the G20, it is worth noting that nearly all (17) of these countries have implemented protectionist measures in the last few months–in spite of signing a pledge in November 2008 to avoid protectionist measures.

For all their crowing about free trade, these scoundrels are sneaking in barriers at every opportunity, often to the detriment of the world’s poor.

Details are in a report by the World Bank. It states:

“Since the beginning of the financial crisis, officials have proposed and/or implemented roughly 78 trade measures … Of these, 66 involved trade restrictions, and 47 trade-restricting measures eventually took effect.”

Click here for the full report.

SIGN THIS PETITION TO TELL G20 GOVERNMENTS TO END PROTECTIONISM NOW

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