News South Wales Cattle Producer John Carter writes;
“This is the second in the series of articles written after my return from the USA where I attended and was a key note speaker at R-CALF USA’s 3 day annual conference held in Omaha Nebraska. I participated and spoke as a representative of the Australian Beef Association (ABA).”
Free Trade Agreements benefit “Billionaire Thugs” and not ordinary citizens.
Conference Key Note Speaker, Lorri Wallach , Director of the 200,000 strong Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch gave Free Trade the most energetic and fact based demolition that I have ever heard.
Her description of the brainpower of those who negotiated the recent Free Trade Agreements is unprintable.
However to summarize Ms Wallach and her organization believe “the US/Australian Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is of no benefit to the ordinary people, but is of huge benefit to multi national chemical companies and other billionaire thugs.”
Ms Wallach contends that the World Trade Authority (WTO) is undemocratic and operates in secrecy, that it is controlled by big business interests who exploit cheap labor abroad and that it has begun to encroach on the rights of countries to protect their environment and restrict imports of unsafe foods and hazardous materials.
However it was the Leadership Townhall meeting following my effort that really impressed me. Sponsored by R-CALF and the Coalition for a Prosperous America, some 300 men and women sat around dinner in the ballroom of the hotel.
An old, dignified Nebraskan Senator spoke of America being brought to its knees and the need for a rebirth. We then listened to seven brilliant speakers address answers to correcting what they believe is the impending US Depression .
Leaders in manufacturing, the trade unions (Union Boss Richard Trumka addressing the conference in the photo below) and farming attacked the de-regulation and free trade policies of the past 20 years.
A man from Paul Revere’s 1801 Revere Copper Products, explained how China was putting them out of business.They could manufacture a Revere silver plated bowl for $20 but China could do it for $14.28, not because of cheaper labor but because of their currency.
Colorado apple farmers are being put out of business by China for the same reason. Free trade just doesn’t work with different currency regimes.
The Union official spoke brilliantly on jobs being lost , health care becoming unaffordable. This was an inspiring coalition.
It was a privilege to be part of a general panel for questions. It was a privilege to be a part of this most inspiring gathering. Photo of me (seated centre) with Judith McGeary of the Farm & ranch Freedom Alliance and R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard answer questions from those at the conference on the Animal ID and Trade Panels.
I wished that anyone with influence in Australia was listening. Here is the policy platform for a new Australian party to take.
This was the heart of America rising against Globalization greed and distortion.
Belatedly Americans are realising that China has outsmarted them. One speaker said “We put the small crooks in yellow suits and send them to gaol and the big ones in pin stripe suits and send them to Washington”.
They see both major parties as multinational stooges. There is a grass-roots mood for change in the USA and these people are serious about getting the de-regulation and Free Trade policy’s of the last 20 years reversed.
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Tags: Free Trade, Globalization, R-CALF USA
Thank goodness John Carter has reported on the unhappiness on the ‘Free Trade Agreement’ (I call it the Conditional Trade Agreement) from the perspective of farming families in the US.
I concur wholeheartedly with their views.
The micro-economic effects of macro-economic decisions never fall in favour of micro- and small enterprises, such as farming families. Over the past 20 years, there has been persistent forcing of Australian farmers to ‘get big or get out’, incorporate expensive ‘technology’ to demonstrate their ‘innovation’ and to rebadge themselves as agribusiness and corporate entities which effectively removes them from the intimate and day-to-day details which are required to produce high-quality and highly nutritious foods.
The export-or-perish mantra - still encouraged by the various Farmers Associations - is the ideal prescription to maintain costly high-input practices in the ever diminishing quest to increase yields and productivity. What if the dollar value of each tonne was increased instead? Why are we seeing record prices for wheat at present? What is making it more valuable than ever before? It is because there is scarcity which means every tonne is more valuable than if there was a glut.
Differentiating products adds value and the less there is of something (take GE free canola for instance) the more valuable it becomes.
I agree whole heartedly with R-CALF…. the only winners from the (agriculture division) ‘FTA’ structure and system are the multi-national agrichemical and commodity companies.
How to do things differently? Produce higher-value and different goods……
Producing more of the same and expecting higher prices is the same as the definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over and over and over again and…… expecting a different result…….
To Bush Goddess,
The Two biggest per capita debtors in the world are now New Zealand and Australia.
They have the highest interest rates in the developed world with South Africa and Latin America.
They have the least barriers to trade in the World.
We are going out backwards in a mineral boom!! How long will it take our political cretins to put this equation together?
John Carter