Protectionism Won’t Work

just as American corporations adjust the sale prices of products to meet the market they are selling in, other countrys should be forced to do the same. fair market value is determaned only by greed. while profits gained by building a product in a lower cost arena is never pased to the consumer in our country the differance is used to offset the lower sales price in other markets. allthough understandable it has no value to add to any economy. if we adopted a build here sell here policy both for import and export the employment value would bolster the economy of any market that the product was sold in. if you have to create jobs to sell your product the only thing that gets hurt is the ridiculous bonus and profit practices that downward spiral of our economy and moral of any and all workers around the world.if a product is built and marketed in a country where wages are vastly lower the price of the product in that country would match the economy that it is being marketed in and at the same time if the corporations teach the quality standards and continuous improvment mentality it cant help but leave added value to the workers and economy of that market therefore advancing the wages and self worth of the employee and market. but this statigy is much like building a retirement you have to play for the long term, and the playing feild would take 50+ years to level. but as long as we dont help build the world economy withought protecting our own we will stay on this rollercoaster of feast or famon. just as people in this country dont understand they have to remind our government they work for us. if we dont go to the poles and change the players on a regular basis the players become complacent and with no conciquince they assume they can dictate what we want instead of asking. the same applies to our economy if we continue to buy chinese product built in a country we cannot compeat with the knife at our throat is in our own hand.if we dont step up our government and corperations will sucseed in turning the U.S. into another third world country. Tim Crowley Blythewood South Carolina formerly of Greenville Michagan another ruined economy.

Oh, and by the way Mr. Lamy, you of all people should know there is a damn big difference between free markets and free trade.

"Harvard professor Robert Z. Lawrence argued convincingly in a 2008 study that the stagnation of middle- and working-class wages is largely attributable to the larger share of the profits that has gone into the hands of the superrich."

No, the principal answer to the quandary of low unemployment rates yet stagnant wages/reduction in real income is the fact that the vast majority of jobs now exist in the service/retail sector. These jobs generally require less-skilled labor and, therefore, pay less (not to mention generally offering fewer benefits).

Our employment market today is at a significant disadvantage to those of the 70s and 80s, when we last experienced similar economic downturns, due both to the loss of productive semiskilled employment such as manufacturing jobs and a greater exposure to deflationary pressures in the service/retail sector.

Why do we have this imbalance and these new risks? To a great degree, the answer is free trade.

Free trade amongst a group of countries will always enrich the poorer and cripple the richest. It is the nature of the beast. Production of most consumer goods is relocated to where labor is the cheapest, wages in competitive sectors in the richer nations are forced downward to maintain some measure of competition with the poorer trade members, and eventually the richer nations become almost exclusively consumption-oriented, leaving them disastrously exposed to an economic situation such as we now have.

In the end, though, the answer to our problems lies not in more or less "free" trade but instead in two elements: 1) an ethic of fair trade for all nations, the poorer and the richer; and, even more important, 2) the personal responsibility of every individual to make wise choices in both consumption and production.

This country or any other country can not compete with a communist country with public health care and 40.00 a week wages.You can not buy a can opener,toaster etc. without the label saying "MADE IN CHINA" Wake up America!! Be American,buy American when you can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carl Sich,Sparrows Point MD.

Who is the World Trade Organization? Why do we care what they think? Last time I looked congress is suppose to create trade policies that benefit the United States of America; (CONSITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) not the WTO a private entity with its own agenda. Are these the same People involved in the Counsel for Foreigner Relations (CFR) and the Federal Reserve?

Of course, and the Federal Reserve is putting up central banks all over the world. Why is that? PROFIT!!! They don???t care about America they care about profit and control over the countries it sets up central banks in; Hence GLOBAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS.

Wake up people, follow the money trail. The same people are involved in WTO, CFR and Federal Reserve and congress knows it, that???s why they never do anything to benefits WE THE PEOPLE. It???s all about Global financial control, Control a countries currency and you control its resources and commodities. Congress needs to take back its trade power and put the USA back on track. Oh yea! Get rid of the Federal Reserve lets stop paying tax for paper that we can print our selves. What constitutes a 3rd world country; a country that imports everything and produces nothing.

Who is the World Trade Organization? Why do we care what they think? Last time I looked congress is suppose to create trade policies that benefit the United States of America; (CONSITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) not the WTO a private entity with its own agenda. Are these the same People involved in the Counsel for Foreigner Relations (CFR) and the Federal Reserve?

Of course, and the Federal Reserve is putting up central banks all over the world. Why is that? PROFIT!!! They don???t care about America they care about profit and control over the countries it sets up central banks in; Hence GLOBAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS.

Wake up people, follow the money trail. The same people are involved in WTO, CFR and Federal Reserve and congress knows it, that???s why they never do anything to benefits WE THE PEOPLE. It???s all about Global financial control, Control a countries currency and you control its resources and commodities. Congress needs to take back its trade power and put the USA back on track. Oh yea! Get rid of the Federal Reserve lets stop paying tax for paper that we can print our selves. What constitutes a 3rd world country; a country that imports everything and produces nothing.

If America were the exporting Giant we were after WW11 then we would have a reason to opt for free trade-- But No we are now a consumer nation -- Sending our dollars elsewhere -- Hence the need to have a modest import duty of say 5-8%.
that will offset the huge trade imbalance. To send Billions of cash out of the country with nothing but consumption products returning is the prescription for disaster we are now living.

The director of the WTO is arguing against reducing the power of the WTO?

Well, THAT's a surprise!

Now, can we get an objective expert opinion, please? After all, we've followed the WTO's advice, and as a direct result, America's economy is in a shambles.

From 1821 through 1900 the United States averaged 29.7% effective tariff rates and peaked in 1830 at 57.3% with only 8% of all imports being duty-free, dwarfing the Smoot-Hawley rate. By 1937 the effective tariff rate was reduced to 15.6% when the reaction of 1937-1938 occurred, demonstrating no statistical correlation between this economic downturn and tariff levels. But it was Smoot-Hawley that dragged us into the depression, not failed fiscal policies and a doomed stock market that had rejected protectionism by thinking it could get away without taking any responsibility. You're right Lamy, We the People are being completely irrational for assuming a historic connection with 1929. It's only our jobs, our homes, and our futures for your grossly inflated salary. So keep the propaganda flowing!

We need fair trade, not free trade which simply translates into a revival of slave labor. Since I have a nickel and dime portfolio of stocks, I am angry that the current free trade agreements, which result in sweat shops, child labor, and toxic products, are eliminating markets for American goods. People who can't find drinkable water cannot afford to buy any of the goods we have to offer. I support Obama's philosophy of rewriting trade agreements with labor and environmental safeguards. People who have decent jobs do not resort to terrorism because they have something to live for. They are also reliable customers.
P.S. One thing that Lamy does not mention is family planning and the recycling of resources. We desperately need to create a SUSTAINABLE global economy - our current global model is destined to self-destruct.

Like our current Income Tax, the United States must work to simplify it's Import Tax. I hope Obama will reject treaties that limit our ability to set teriffs on certain goods or goods from certain countries. We need a set rate that taxes ALL goods imported into the country. This tax could pay for better inspection practices of goods brought into the country but could also fund more Immigration agents, more TSA agents, more Border Patrol agents, etc. as a way to protect America and it's borders. A fair import tax system will encourage other countries to offer the same. This will lead to more stability in the shipping business and lessen the complicated regulation now in place.

Tell the EU that protectionism won't work. They are already planning their protectionism. I am a capitalist. However, free market economics in America is nothing but legalized fraud, extortion, bribery and racketeering. Wall street is the 21st center of organized crime. Corporations have subverted our republic. Indeed we must find a way to charge these free market fascists with sedition. Since 1998 we have had corporate socialism and free market tyranny.

The Smoot-Hawley act was passed at a time when America had a trade surplus, so it didn't help but hurt. Today is a
very different story with huge tarde short falls. We have to be smart enough to understand the name of the game is
to sell all you can and buy as little as you can get away with.

Free trade between developing countries and developed countries is devastating to the middle class of the developed country. In the developed country, the rich benefit from global investments, the poor benefit through more buying power with their fixed government payments, but the middle class suffers wage stagnation and decline from labor arbitrage. Unless you want to live in a country without a middle class, free trade is great.

Not that we have free trade with China, India, Vietnam, Japan etc. They still manipulate their currencies; have domestic content laws and other barriers. The US is basically playing a fools game that is undermining the democratic fabric of this country. The massive US trade deficit and equally massive Asian money surplus is what caused the financial meltdown. Mr. Lamy seems to prescribe more of the same of this economic medicine for America. On the other hand, I have yet to meet a Frenchman who did not want to cut the US down to size.

The U.S. is often called "protectionist" when it is in fact open and wants others like Japan, Korea, China, the EU to provide equal opportunity. Let us be clear for once. When a country has formal and informal barriers and targets another country's market, it is protectionist. That is not the U.S. Our position should be that we will be exactly as open, in all respects (as far as possible) as our trading partners. If they will immediately open, fine. If not, we should move to their level as quickly as possible. The choice being theirs. The WTO fails in removing informal barriers and those who maintain them are too large a component of the international system to ignore longer. Let's be practical. The U.S. trade imbalance and our foreign borrowing are not sustainable. Correcting them is as important as Mr. Lamy's desire for the Doha Round and can move ahead in tandem - if others will open to free trade.

Even on free markets that has to be a sane guiding brain force behind it.
Would someone tell me how does the world and human civilizations benefit from cheap plastic useless objects made anywere? Like dollar store junk and other useless. I like to see quality rather than quantity and frugality.
The resources are finite, on one hand we have poverty and on the other we pay a dollar or more for bottle water?
All the bottle water purchase in the US can solve the world hunger.
I see contradictions here, we should eliminate and = or change ways to do things even if in the process we have some inconvenience. Just one example of waste and how we can use our resources better.

It is not just Japanese and Chinese tariffs. The two countries are literally at economic war with the US. Japan has been since the 50s and 60s. They also flood open markets (i.e. US) with 'cheaper than possible' goods to squeeze out domestic competition. It is supported by their governments while the US gov't ignores the plight of domestic industry. I believe the first major occurrence was with black and white TVs, followed by color TVs from Japan when color was a new thing.

Why is that the United States must parctice free trade and other nations such as Japan and China are allowed to put up huge tariffs? But if anybody ever dreams of reciprocal trade agreements or fair trade then you are called a protectionist. The only people that I have ever heard address this issue were Dick Gephardt and Pat Buchannan. Everybody else in either party sells us out.