Profit & Loss

[Coffey, Mitchell R]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Teufelsdröckh [mailto:florentius at mac.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 8:19 AM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Profit & Loss
> 
> 
> Trade Restrictions Cost World's Poor 2.5 Billion Dollars Each Year:
> <http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0514-01.htm>
> 
> What have the GATT and NAFTA and various other "free trade" treaties
> done to alleviate this problem? Or the IMF and World Bank? 
> Very little,
> it seems. Why? Just as democracy must be tempered by constitutional
> protection of the minority and the weak, establishing certain 
> rights as
> beyond the reach of majority rule, outside the control of the 
> powerful,
> lest democracy exist only as the voice of the mob, so too free trade,
> however much it appears to be fair, is not unless it provide for the
> weak and poor. The remedies of the GATT and NAFTA are not as 
> accessible
> to the poor as they are to the rich. Justice costs money. 
> Therefore the
> rich enjoy more of it.
> 
> Unless a trade agreement explicitly address the disparity in resources
> for pursuing justice, it would not be fair. It would 
> inevitably serve to
> further the interests of the rich. That's why protesters in Québec and
> elsewhere call for f a i r trade instead of f r e e trade.


What exactly is "fair trade"?

Mitchell Coffey


> --
> Teufelsdröckh
> 
> P.S. I didn't get a chance to ask Tom about this, but I don't 
> think he'd
> mind my putting in these few words against the arrogant (unknowingly,
> usually) powerful.
>