Certainly there are major groups who like to see these as two sides of the same coin. But, they do not have to be. Jagdish Bhagwati has very loudly and publicly called for free trade to be simultaneously exist with restrictions on capital mobility. They are not necessarily linked. A country can have free trade and restrict capital mobility. There is nothing that would stop it from doing so.
Obviously there are winners and losers in all of these things. The argument that gains to the winners will outweigh the losses to the losers in (most) free trade situations is very strong. Now, an implication of that is that a more progressive approach might well be to focus on making sure that the losers are compensated appropriately and sufficiently in a direct manner. Thus, for decades Sweden had free trade (except for in ag) and had the world's most generous plan of adjustment assistance to labor laid off due to import competition. Sweden also had corporatist arrangements dating from 1938 whereby there was economy-wide wage bargaining with increases tied to productivity increases in the export sector. As you certainly well know, Sweden also had one of the most progressive income redistribution programs in the world and achieved both the lowest rate of poverty ever seen in world history and the highest quality of life for women in the world, all within a regime of largely free trade.
I would suggest that the efforts being directed at the WTO should be directed at obtaining decent adjustment assistance (not to mention getting the US Congress to adopt the Kyoto Accords).
Happy holidays, Tom. Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message----- From: Tom Lehman <TLehman at lor.net> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Sunday, December 19, 1999 6:17 PM Subject: Re: more WTO
>Barkley, I don't see how you can or anyone else can separate the issues
>of capital mobility and so-called free trade. They are two sides of the
>same coin. The WTO and the other trade deals on one side of the coin;
>the IMF/World Bank etc. on the other side of the coin.
>
>We have engaged in a lot of central planning in our American economy;
>only we never called it central planning. On the other hand we never
>have tried to micro manage our economy like others in the world.
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>What it all boils down to is an easy question for you to ask down in
>olde Virginia, "for whose benefit" are these trade deals and financial
>deals being made?
>
>Tom
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>"J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." wrote:
>
>> I apologize in advance as this is strictly a
>> hit and run appearance.
>> Doug, you may remember that the demos in
>> India against the WTO were against the threat of
>> the WTO doing what the "anti-imperialist" folks
>> in Seattle, with all their kind and mushy thoughts
>> were demonstrating for.
>> Of course the piece in Slate that Carl Remick
>> ridiculed so much is exactly correct. Anybody who
>> thinks this is just an elitist argument should support
>> tariffs by Kansas against Illinois so they can have a
>> soybean industry. Illinois has an absolute advantage
>> in wheat, corn, and soybeans. But any intelligent
>> socialist central planner would have soybeans in
>> Illinois, corn in Iowa, and wheat in Kansas, just as
>> comparative advantage indicates.
>> For those
>> who want to either nix or fix, let me note that the
>> real threat is free capital mobility, not free trade.
>> Nothing to do with WTO at all, sorry. One can
>> help out one's own workers with adjustment
>> assistance like the Swedes did for decades and
>> have free trade and highly progressive internal
>> policies, if one can get it together.
>> The debate between the nix it of fix it crowd
>> is simply one of incoherence. "Fix it" implies
>> even more power to imperialistically impose stuff
>> on Third World countries not democratically since
>> any democratic governance there is going to really
>> put the kibbosh on any such moves.
>> Of course "nix it" doesn't care since the point is
>> to oppose the WTO, period. Hey, we can have Unity!
>> (wow!) with neo-fascists and all sorts of other proper
>> thinking types.
>> Meanwhile back to wanking in the Shenvaleeeee !!!
>> Barkley Rosser
>> Professor of Economics
>> James Madison University
>> Harrisonburg, VA 22807 USA
>> http://cob.jmu.edu/rosserjb
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