[wplug] OT: WTO was: Re: What is this World Intellectual Property Concept that RMS is pushing?

[John Harrold]

Sometime in April William N. Powell assaulted the keyboard and produced:

| Bush placed tariffs on the imported steel, which the WTO considers bad. 
|  This could be considered the government subsidizing the US steel 
| industry, but most view it as protectionism of the US Steel industry, 
| which is good for them, but generally bad for the steel consumer as it 
| raises steel prices.

You're probably right... tariffs or subsidies/pushing or pulling many of
the end effects are more or less the same. I was trying to point out that,
while we use the WTO to further our own interests, they are also used
against us. For many years trade agreements were more one sided --- serving
the interestes of the more industrial nations. However, the developing
nations have started banding together (like Brazil and the other nations
which produce agricultural goods) to make organizations like the WTO work
for them. People here see things from their perspective: farming subsidies
threatened. In reality, the issues are far more complex than that. But
these are discussions for a different mailing list ;).

-- 
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                            | /"\                         
 john harrold               | \ / ASCII ribbon campaign   
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 the most useful idiot      | / \                         
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 What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, 
 and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is brought 
 under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of 
 liberty and democracy?
 --Gandhi
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