Rakesh Bhandari wrote:
> Nowadays, the
> >> situation is more complicated, because the keiretsu have become global
> >> production and trading networks, with facilities, plant and equipment
> >> across the planet, and the US, Japan and EU have become far more
> >> permeable to cross-investment than in any Manchester liberal's wildest
> >> dreams.
>
> Dennis,
>
> Perhaps one of the myths of globalisation is the realisation of
> unrestricted commerce on a global scale--a myth that implies the diminution
> of the nation state as well.
>
> Yet to what extent has the growth in cross or foreign investment been
> motivated by the attempt to circumvent de facto barriers to trade such as
> subsidies, voluntary export restraints, trigger price mechanisms (the
> establishing of minimum prices for sale), targeted trade practices? Could
> the thrust towards building global market shares by the
> internationalisation of production be the paradoxical result of defacto
> protectionist barriers to trade that are hardly in the Manchester liberal's
> wildest dreams? One would suspect that these defacto protectionist barriers
> will continue to be important sources of conflict as the US in particular
> runs trade deficits while attempting to dismantle protectionist barriers
> elsewhere through the WTO.
>
> yours, Rakesh
>
> ps Roger, thank you for most stimulating ruminations on the contemporary
> challenges facing Marxist theory. I am still thinking about what you and
> Max wrote in reply to Rosa's quote.
-- Gregory P. Nowell Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Milne 100 State University of New York 135 Western Ave. Albany, New York 12222
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