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#freetrade

16 posts13 participants0 posts today
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Dark Photon Studio

#SirKeirStarmer is in an impossible situation. He's trying to thread a needle that doesn't have a hole. Make no mistake this is still #newlabour and there is little to distinguish them from #conservatives. Like so many countries all the parties are in thrall to #neoliberalism and they won't move away from it. To do so would be to admit neoliberalism is a disaster. Instead they do what all UK govs do when the going gets tough, #austerity because they have no solution. They are tied to the #US and the fantasy of "#freetrade". The #tories knew this but they had no plan and that's why they called elections. When they get back in, they still won't.

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Ken S

When ‘Australia’ was upset with the Japanese during League of Nations the then-PM ‘Billy’ Hughes made a purposeful effort to lobby US senators to get them onside despite the President’s position on the matter (‘Racial Equality’).

Meanwhile - fast forward to present day: Australia’s Leaders, Dutton and Albanese are content with just focusing on their election campaigns.
sbs.com.au/news/article/tariff
#AusPol #AusVotes2025 #TradeWar #AusBiz #FreeTrade #Tariffs #InternationalRelations

A Senate Finance Committee hearing in the United States has seen one of Trump's trade chiefs come under fire over tariffs, with the representative admitting to "running up the score" on Australia.
SBS NewsTariffs on 'incredibly important' ally Australia branded 'insulting' in fiery US Senate hearingA Senate Finance Committee hearing in the United States has seen one of Trump's trade chiefs come under fire over tariffs, with the representative admitting to "running up the score" on Australia.
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Miguel Afonso Caetano

"The big, long-term question: what does the global trading system look like? The thing to watch for is whether the kind of deals Vietnam and others are making with the US end up destroying the most-favoured-nation principle underlying the World Trade Organization by giving the US special treatment. I’m moderately optimistic on this one. Label these deals as preferential trade agreements (which is pretty dodgy under WTO rules, but there are plenty of weak PTAs about already), recognise that many won’t make much difference to US exports anyway and move on. It strikes me that, if anything, attachment to the multilateral system, particularly in open trading economies like the south-east Asian nations, has increased as a result of the US threatening it. If countries are looking for a framework of international trade law, the WTO provides it. Unfortunately, though, I don’t see much sign that India is going to stop playing its spoiler role and paralysing the negotiations part of the WTO (as the US tried with the dispute settlement system)."

ft.com/content/3a6c0561-0628-4

#USA#Trump#Tariffs
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AJ Sadauskas

Anyone else notice how quiet the neoliberals have been lately?

For decades, conservative fans of FA Hayek and Milton Friedman have told us that free trade and free markets are their core principles.

That we should let the invisible hand of the market decide.

That any government intervention, no matter how well intended, distorts the markets.

That government intervention in markets is socialism.

That governments shouldn't pick winners.

That taxes are bad.

That if there's a choice between government intervention to stop global warming from fossil fuel pollution or free trade, they'll gladly pick free trade.

Right back to Reagan and Thatcher, they swore these were their core principles.

So.

An American president intervening in markets by imposing arbitrary protectionist tariff taxes should have been a hard no.

A political candidate openly campaigning on doing this should have met stiff opposition from the invisible hand's true believers.

If a true believer in these neoliberal principles (as Rupert Murdoch has claimed to be) owned a news channel (such as Fox News), one would expect outrage at this blatant rejection of free markets and free trade.

So where are all the neoliberal think tanks? Economists? Politicians?

Why the silence?

#economics#FreeMarkets#FreeTrade
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Miguel Afonso Caetano

"Trump’s crusade to rebalance trade is occurring because the vicious cycle propping up the FIRE sector at the expense of the American people is breaking down. The rise of the multipolar world order disrupts the American oligarchy’s interests. The modernization and economic development of the rest of the world reduces the need for other countries to rely on American imperial hegemony. There are more trade opportunities than ever outside America. Other countries are less reliant on access to American markets, weakening the dollar’s status as reserve currency.

Any gains for the productive economy from Trump’s tariffs will likely be sabotaged by the FIRE sector’s malinvestment of capital and the foreign-policy establishment’s unwillingness to withdraw from the world. America can’t have its cake (of maintaining the dollar as the global reserve currency) and eat it too (bringing back manufacturing and resolving trade imbalances). The oligarchy cannot be expected to act in America’s best interests, because that is at the expense of its interests.

Ending the rule of the American oligarchy would require reductions of military spending, ending proxy conflicts, closing bases, and embracing diplomacy. For the FIRE sector, this would entail taxing financial transactions, using central bank window guidance, and establishing a national development bank to direct investment into productive sectors and not to asset price inflation. Tariff policy wouldn’t be used as a retaliatory action, but as a targeted and measured policy tool for incubating critical domestic industries."

compactmag.com/article/liberat

Compact · Liberating America Requires More Than TariffsToday, we arrive at President Donald Trump’s heralded “Liberation Day,” in which broad tariffs will be implemented in response to manufacturing and trade imbalances.
#USA#Trump#Tariffs
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