Do you want that with fries?
John Palmer (the Eccentric Econoclast) points to an example of the substitution North Dakota minimum wage labor (and a little capital) for Oregon minimum wage labor: "Capital-Labour Substitution in Fast Foods"
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Do you want that with fries?
John Palmer (the Eccentric Econoclast) points to an example of the substitution North Dakota minimum wage labor (and a little capital) for Oregon minimum wage labor: "Capital-Labour Substitution in Fast Foods"
January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
What does the Director-General of the WTO do?
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is in the process of selecting a Director General (DG) for the next four years. The WTO DG is responsible for running the WTO's 600 person secretariat in Geneva. The DG is not a decision maker with respect to the details of trade agreements; the WTO members take the member-driven nature of the organization seriously. But the DG can play an important role in the negotiations. The size of the role depends on the DG's initiative and character.
During his speech to the World Trade Organization's General Council on January 26, WTO Director-General (DG) candidate Pascal Lamy described how he saw the role of the WTO DG:
Why a manager? Because he is responsible for the activities of the Secretariat, for the conduct of WTO operations, for the management of WTO personnel. He must fix objectives, and evaluate performance. And because he is given this job, he is himself responsible for his own performance before the members who vote the budget. He must manage, and in order to manage, he must motivate, lead, and reform if necessary, notably in the direction of transparency...
Why an advocate? Because the DG is spokesman for the organization and the goals defined by the members of the organization. In Geneva and in national capitals, where he must be capable of opening doors. In the media. In debate, notably with those who criticise us, sometimes fairly, but also with those who have even more fundamental objections. To do so, the DG must be able to speak several languages. The language of our WTO agreements, in which we are of course all masters of its sometimes obscure (at least for the non-initiated) complexities. But also the simple language of international public opinion. A Director General must convince. And to do that, he must be convinced. For example, on the priority of multilateralism over bilateral agreements, whatever their virtues...
Why an honest broker? Because the members of the organization have different positions, sometimes conflictual, and these differences are if anything growing as our membership grows. The solution remains in the art of compromise between sovereign nations. The DG must therefore be able to facilitate, he must be considered by the members as an objective interlocutor, an intermediary in whom everybody has confidence, capable of reducing disagreement, mistrust, and prejudice. He must be ready to make a contribution as a catalyst in this peculiar chemistry set of consensus, in full co-operation with those to whom you have conferred responsibilities as chairmen of different councils and committees. He must be both engineer and mechanic, with the WTO agreements as his technical manual. He must be ready to stand aside when necessary. And to be available when necessary.
The sheer complexity and necessity of this role is not, I fully recognise, precisely defined by the texts which govern this organization. The DG of the WTO has no “powers” of this kind. Because the organization remains member driven, he has no right to such a role, he must earn it. And in what currency is this role earned? In trust. The DG must construct a trust-fund with a revenue stream based on respect for his role. Not to save it. But to spend it, in the service of the organization."
January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
On the Road to Hong Kong
The Trade Ministers of the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meet every two years. This "Ministerial Conference" is the highest level decision-making body in the WTO.
They met in 1999 in Seattle, in 2001 in Doha, Qatar, and in 2003 in Cancún, Mexico. Their next meeting will take place this December 13-18 in Hong Kong. There is no chance that they will complete the current Doha Round negotiations at this meeting. Their meeting may propel those negotiations into their final phase, with completion in 2006.
Gustavo Capdevila reports that a meeting of ministers from a number of WTO member nations at Davos, Switzerland last week is expected to give Doha Round negotiations a boost ("Davos meet recharges Doha Round of WTO talks", Asia Times Online 2-1-05).
Swiss Economy Minister Joseph Deiss, who hosted the ministerial meeting in Davos, said the ministers must go to Hong Kong with "concrete progress" on modalities in agriculture and industrial goods as well as a "critical mass" of progress on services and trade facilitation. The draft agreements, he said, should also include a "proper reflection of the development dimension" - a reference to the assymetries between nations that put developing countries at a disadvantage.
The key issues in the run-up to Hong Kong will be discussed in a new ministerial meeting to take place in Kenya in early March. The ministers stated that the draft texts of the agreements - the "approximation of the kind of modalities we will like to see", in Supachai's words - should be ready by August. If there is no outline of the modalities by then, it will be very difficult to reach an agreement next December, said Alfredo Chiaradía, Argentina's secretary of foreign trade.
Deiss said the negotiators must reduce their differences and that only a few major political questions should be left pending by the time the ministers meet in Hong Kong. "
Hong Kong NGOs, union leaders and other groups have scheduled a meeting for February 26-27 in the former British colony "to map out the plan of action both during and leading up to" the December 13-18 meeting, said Rey Asis, regional secretary of the Asian Students Association, one of the organisers..."
January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Friends of Anti-dumping Negotiations
One of the groups organized to push a point of view in the current WTO negotiations is the "Friends of Anti-dumping Negotiations."
Firms are said to "dump" goods when they sell them in a foreign country for less than they sell them in their own. The U.S., and increasingly other countries, have "anti-dumping" legislation to prevent this.
Anti-dumping is ripe for abuse. Dan Ikenson of the CATO Institute discussed the U.S. statute, here: "Antidumping: The Unfair, Unfair Trade Law":
But that dubious justification is a smokescreen, pure and simple. The fact is that the antidumping law is protectionist, contradictory and unfair. Its overzealous application routinely punishes U.S. importers and foreign exporters who transact fairly, and ultimately undermines the administration’s broader trade agenda.
The Import Administration (IA) is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. According to its Web site, the IA “[e]nforces laws and agreements to prevent unfairly traded imports and to safeguard jobs and the competitive strength of American industry.” It is a classic case of the fox watching over the henhouse. The IA’s concern for American industry extends only to those industries seeking to squelch foreign competition. The consequences for downstream producers and U.S. exporters are systematically ignored.
The IA’s methods of determining dumping are rigged in favor of protectionist outcomes, but are insulated from popular scrutiny by arcane and highly technical procedures. Indeed, most defenders of the law have no idea how it works in practice, but are simply attracted to its appealing rhetoric of “fair trade” and “level playing fields.” If it sounds good, it must be good.
Dumping is said to occur when an exporter’s prices in the United States are lower than those it charges for similar merchandise in its home market. Procedures for determining these price differences are not straightforward. They are subject to curious conditions and indefensible calculations, which are strictly the domain of the Import Administration."
The WTO has rules (the Anti-dumping Agreement") on how countries can respond to instances of dumping. These rules are on the table during the current, Doha, round of negotiations.
The "Friends of Anti-dumping Negotiations" would like to see more controls introduced on anti-dumping legislation. The "Friends" includes Brazil, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Israel, Norway, Switzerland, India and Columbia. (Bridges)
The United States is not one of the "Friends", and "remains in the opposite camp, considering the right to use anti-dumping measures to be a high priority in ongoing talks." (Bridges)
The "Friends" met in Geneva on January 18-20 to think through their negotiating plans for the coming year. The anti-dumping rule negoitiations are taking place within the WTO's "Negotiating Group on Rules". The next meeting of this negotiating group is on February 21-23. (Bridges)
Source: International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development. " 'Friends' Group Meets on Anti-dumping to Prepare for Rules Talks." Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest January 26, 2005. Pages 10-11.
January 30, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wolf on Rich Country Agricultural Subsidies
In a recent issue of the Financial Times, Alan Beattie explains the tradeoff "at the heart" of the current world trade negotiations (in the �Doha Round�):
"At the heart of any final deal is likely to be a bargain between the rich trading blocs, the European Union, US and Japan, and big emerging market countries such as India, Brazil and South Africa.
The deal would see the rich nations cut subsidies and tariff protection on agriculture in return for better access for their goods and services exports to those emerging markets."
("Doha round faces long and winding road", Financial Times) . US, EU, and Japanese subsidies to agricultural producers could be an important part of the tradeoff.
Martin Wolf spoke to these subsidies in his recent book, Why Globalization Works. Rich country subsidies to agricultural producers poison the competitive environment for developing countries in an area that might otherwise be a strength for them:
��perhaps the greatest of all the scandals [Wolf charges that for various reasons, including the subsidies, rich country treatment of the developing countries is hypocritical � hence the term �scandals� - Ben] remains the treatment of agriculture. In this area, one of comparative advantage for many developing countries, they have hardly managed to raise their share of world exports. This is so even though agriculture is, for the high-income countries, of trivial economic importance in terms of GDP, employment and trade. What stops the developing countries is the staggering scale of rich-country subsidies.
Rich country spending priorities are wrong:
�According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, total assistance to rich country farmers was $311 billion in 2001, six times as much as all development assistance, indeed more than the GDP of sub-Saharan Africans. In 2000, the EU provided $913 for each cow and $8 to each sub-Saharan African. The Japanese, more generous still, though only to cows, provided $2,700 for each one and just $1.47 to each African. Not to be outdone, the $US spent $10.7 million a day on cotton and $3.1 million a day on all aid to sub-Saharan Africa.
The subsidies are counter-productive, even for the rich countries themselves:
�The priorities shown here are obscene. In order to justify the grotesquerie of its agricultural policy regime, the common agricultural policy, the EU has started to apply the notion of �multi-functionality�. By this it means that agricultural supports are justified by their ability not only to support farm incomes, but to protect the environment, food security and rural life. The EU is right about the multi-functionality of the CAP, just wrong about the functions its policies serve. The CAP is regressive (since it provides 50 per cent of its benefits to the 17 per cent biggest farmers, who need this help least), wasteful (since it still consumes almost half of the EU�s budget), environmentally damaging (since it encourages needless intensification of agricultural production) and harmful to developing countries (since it deprives them of markets and undermines the competitiveness of their farmers with its dumping of subsidized surpluses). This is multi-functionality with a vengeance. The picture is little different in the US: only 16 per cent of the support goes to the 80 per cent of the farmers who operate on a relatively small scale."
These subsidies damage developing countries in a variety of ways:
"Unfortunately, while the Uruguay round brought a little discipline to this sector, it was grossly inadequate. [Prior to the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, negotiations to reduce trade barriers had not focused on agriculture. The Uruguay Round, completed in 1994, took first steps to address barriers to agricultural trade. Agriculture is supposed to be a central element of the current �Doha Round� of negotiations - Ben] Agricultural support in the EU and US was higher in the late 1990s, as measured by the OECD�s Producer Support Estimates, than between 1986 and 1988, the base years for the Uruguay Round agreements. Much of the support is still output related. [output related support may encourage additional, hurtful, production - better to "decouple" support from output - Ben] Moreover, many of the subsidies that are supposed not to affect production do so. Because farm supports are anti-cyclical, they increase the instability of residual world markets, with devastating effects on exporters from developing countries. Moreover, subsidized surpluses are still being dumped on world markets. The US and EU account for around half of all world wheat exports, with prices 46 and 34 per cent respectively below the costs of production. In 1998, subsidized exports made up a quarter of global exporters. The EU is the world�s largest exporter of skimmed-milk powder, at half the costs of production. It is also the largest exporter of white sugar, at a quarter of the costs of production. Some argue that such dumping can be beneficial to developing countries that are net food importers. With very few exceptions, this is not so. In most developing countries, farmers are not just the majority of the population, but the overwhelming majority of the poor. Thus the dumped products benefit an urban minority at the expense of the rural majority. Often the subsidized food has turned countries into net importers. Without it, they would both be net exporters and possess far healthier rural economies. While the transition to a world of higher international food prices needs to be handled carefully � and food aid needs to be available to help food importing countries and those vulnerable to harvest failure � it is virtually certain that developing countries would gain hugely from the elimination of current farm policies in the high-income countries. The World Bank has estimated the annual welfare losses to developing countries at $20 billion a year � close to 40 per cent of all development assistance.�
Source: Martin Wolf. Why Globalization Works.. Yale University Press. New Haven: 2004. pages 213-214.
January 30, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Newsweek Interviews Pascal Lamy
Newsweek reporter Karen Lowry Miller interviewed Pascal Lamy for the February 7 issue: "There Is No Trade King"
Why does he want to be WTO Director-General?
Twice, in Seattle and in Cancun. I was terribly frustrated at the way ministerial conferences are structured, or unstructured. Only a miracle could have saved Seattle or Cancun. When taking the right decisions depends on a miracle, we are back to the Middle Ages. We need to improve many things, such as the roles of the host minister and the chief of the negotiating council, how do we decide when topics need facilitators, and so on. We need more transparency.
So what would you do as king of the WTO?
There is no king. You've got to be recognized as a broker, and you have to earn your respect every day.
In this climate, doesn't the director-general have to be able to knock heads together?
There is a leadership challenge now. But the same people who insist on leadership are the same who insist on the fact that we are a member-driven organization. [As the director-general] you don't have any power. You have to build a capital of trust across the board, among all the members, which they accept you might try spending from time to time."
January 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Which Candidate Will the Australian's Choose?
Australians export wheat. Wheat prices are down. The EU has just approved export subsidies for wheat. The Australians are unhappy; they think the EU is going back on subsidy reduction commitments made last summer.
David Uren reports that among other responses, the Australians are reminding the EU that they haven't decided on whether or not to support the EU candidate for Director-General of the WTO ("The Australian: Fury over wheat subsidy about-face" from The Australian):
The Trade Minister said he would register Australia's serious concern with the new European Union trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, at the World Economic Forum in Davos later this week. Mr Vaile was known to be sympathetic to the claims of Mr Mandelson's predecessor, Pascal Lamy, to take up the position of WTO director-general, which falls vacant at the end of August.
Mr Lamy and Mr Vaile have a good personal relationship, and Australia recognised his toughness in persuading the EU to agree last July to abolish agricultural subsidies.
Mr Lamy's key rival for the job, Uruguay's Carlos Perez del Castillo, also has a strong claim on Australian support, as Uruguay was a foundation member of the Cairns Group of agricultural exporters.""
January 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Doha Round Prospects
Alan Beattie explains the key tradeoff in a Doha Round trade agreement:
The deal would see the rich nations cut subsidies and tariff protection on agriculture in return for better access for their goods and services exports to those emerging markets."
Beattie points out that there are several external events this year that may create challenges for the negotiators. One is the possibility that the current race for WTO Director-General may get out of hand:
Member countries say they are desperate to avoid a repeat of the bitter stalemate that characterised the previous competition...
However, with some poor countries affronted that the EU has put forward Pascal Lamy for a post they think should be reserved for a candidate from the developing world, there is potential for a prolonged and debilitating fight that will halt progress on the Doha talks."
The end of the global textile quotas at the beginning of this year provides a test case for how quickly China can seize market share in an industry in which it indisputably has a strong competitive advantage.
Textile producers in developing countries that benefited from the quota system, including Mauritius and Bangladesh, as well as the familiar textile lobby in the US and the EU, will be trying to use every conceivable form of safeguard and anti-dumping mechanism to protect themselves from the onslaught of cheap Chinese imports. This does not bode well for enthusiasm for liberalisation...
The final wild card is the dollar, which has fallen to levels that are causing European exporters to squeal with pain...
The sight of the dollar bloc gaining competitive advantage while the Bush administration stands by will do little for the rest of the world's affection for free trade and open markets..."
January 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Paul Blustein's new book (on the Argentine crisis)
Paul Blustein, the Washington Post international economics reporter, has a new book coming out on the Argentine financial crisis of 2001: "And The Money Kept Rolling In (And Out)"
Blustein was the author of The Chastening, a history of the East Asian financial crisis. He describes the new book as somewhat different:
"Argentina Didn't Fall on Its Own. Wall Street Pushed Debt Till the Last ";
"IMF Says Its Policies Crippled Argentina: Internal Audit Finds Warnings Were Ignored";
January 27, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
WTO DG Candidates Address the General Council
The four candidates for Director-General of the WTO addressed the WTO's General Council today, in what is being billed as the start of the campaign. Later in the day, three of them attended a "public hearing" sponsored by NGOs.
Candidates were given a chance to address the General Council and the Council was given a chance to ask them questions. Each had an hour to an hour and a quarter.
The WTO has posted a new web page dealing with the Director-General (DG) selection process. The page has detailed biographies, and copies of the statements the four candidates made to the Council: WTO | Director-General: Selection Process The Bridges Weekly Trade Digest summarized the candidates remarks: "DG Candidates Meet With General Council".
This story by Richard Waddington of Reuters is a good one: "Candidates Make Pitch for Top World Trade Job". Here's where we are:
Then the head of the General Council, on which all states sit, will sound out members in a bid to cut the field, first to two and then just to one before the end of May."
Perez del Castillo is considered to have been highly effective as council chairman and is well respected in Geneva. Brazil carries much weight in world trade politics, while the Mauritian minister comes with the backing of African states."
The Uruguayan, Mauritian, and Brazilian candidates are pressing the claims of the developing world to a leadership position during the "development round" of trade negotiations:
"We are in the middle of a development round, developing countries have a major stake in this round, therefore it is advisable in my view ... to have a developing country at the helm," Seixas Correa, Brazil's ambassador to the WTO, told reporters.
For his part, Cuttaree, who is currently the foreign minister of Mauritius, insisted that poor nations had the know-how to head the organisation.
"I don't think it would be proper to assume that if you want to have a competent person to run the WTO, that this person necessarily has to come from a developed country," he told a separate news conference."
Perez del Castillo laughed when told by the AP that he was the British firm's top tip.
"I certainly think I have good chances, otherwise I wouldn't be running," he said. He said he has solid support in Latin America, aside from Brazil. He also is believed so far to have backing from several African and Asian nations."
His main rival is seen as Mr Pérez del Castillo, a respected WTO “insider” whom supporters believe can attract the desired consensus. He claimed yesterday to have the “overwhelming” support of Latin American countries, as well as backing from other regions.
Trade envoys say Mr Cuttaree, in spite of his formal endorsement by the African Caribbean Pacific group, may be the first to drop out of the race, because he is opposed by countries that fear he would not fight for freer trade. Mr Seixas Corrêa has struggled to make headway both in his own region and elsewhere."
Later in the day, three of the candidates, Lamy, Seixas Corrêa, and Cuttaree attended a question and answer session sponsored by several NGOs: the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Oxfam, and "3D: Trade-Human Rights-Equitable Economy". The session was webcast live, and a video of the session has been promised by around January 31: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The Bridges Weekly Trade Digest reported on the session: "DG Candidates Follow Up GC Hearing With Civil Society Meeting".
Revised January 27
January 26, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
The Budget is Coming
The President's budget is due on February 7. Mark Schmitt (The Decembrist) reprises his post from last year on: "How to Read a Bush Budget -- A Rerun"
Above all else, remember that, "...that presidential budgets are political documents..."
Schmitt reviews the four types of budget cuts. He's written "an inventory of all the basic little dishonesties that go into the president's budget and a skeptical readers' guide to the inevitably gullible press stories about the budget."
Schmitt is a liberal Democrat, but he makes it clear that his analysis applies to all presidential budgets.
This is well worth the time.
January 25, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Meet the WTO Candidates
Tomorrow (Wednesday, Jan 26) the four WTO Director-General candidates are interviewed by the WTO's General Council.
The meeting starts at 10 AM in Geneva. According to this story in the Bridges Weekly Trade Digest, each candidate will do a 15 minute presentation and then be inverviewed by the Council for an hour. Afterwards each will have a half hour news conference. This AP story says that the Council interview will be "closed-door." (AP via Forbes)
At 1 PM U.S. Eastern Time, three of the candidates will attend a "public hearing" sponsored by several NGOs. This story, at the Trade Observatory, indicates that the hearing will be webcast at the website of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy:
To listen to the meeting, you must have the RealPlayer available for free at real.com."
The Associated Press provides short biographies of the four candidates: " Biographies of WTO Leadership Candidates" (via Forbes)
January 25, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Seixas Corrêa, or Cuttaree?
Who to support for WTO Director-General?
Carli Lourens, of Johannesburg's Business Day, suggests that South Africa is torn between Luiz Felipe de Seixas Corrêa of Brazil and Jaya Krishna Cuttaree of Mauritius:"Four in Line for Top WTO Post, But Who Will Get SA's Vote?"
Some commentators say that SA's foreign affairs department is increasingly making its presence felt in trade matters the domain of the trade and industry department. With its strong Africa agenda, foreign affairs officials may push for SA to support Mauritius."
January 25, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
How to eat out
Tyler Cowen's advice on eating out: "My Ethnic Dining Guide, revised"
Cowen links to the 17th edition (January 2005) of his guide to ethnic dining in the Washington D.C. area.
January 25, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Corruption as an obstacle to investment in Kenya
The Global Growth Blog reports on a study by a Kenyan think tank and the World Bank warning "that Kenya is losing out on Foreign Direct Investment due to endemic corruption and bureaucracy": "Kenyan Think-Tank Warns Corruption Harms Investment"
The findings say firms that receive Government contracts in Kenya pay on average 7.5% of the total contract value as kickbacks. Sector averages vary from 4% in the machinery sub-sector, to 11.5% in the paper, printing and publishing sector. In 2002, the report says that manufacturing firms in Kenya spent more than 4% of their total sales on bribery.
On average, firms paid Sh221 million in 2002 as unofficial payment in respect of utilities such as water, electricity and telephone. The sectors were most affected however, were textiles, garment and leather. Unofficial payments in respect of licenses were lower than those of utilities, and ranged from Sh272 for bakeries to Sh35,000 for textile, garments and leather firms," the Kippra reveals the report. In terms of location, the research found out that firms in Nairobi bear the brunt of corruption as they make the highest amount of unofficial payments on most account. The level of corruption varies with the size of the firms, with the small and medium-sized firms paying the highest percentage of annual revenue and value of Government contracts."
January 24, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
The Making of the WTO Director-General, 2005
This post collects links to my other posts on the WTO Director-General (DG) selection process. I'll update this post later. The headings below represent boxes I'd like to fill in. Unless otherwise noted, the post titles below are titles I've given different posts; many of the posts below are based on columns, posts and news stories by others with different titles.
How are Directors-General chosen?
This post links to the WTO DG selection rules, and to a newspaper article providing a summary description of the process: "The Rules for Choosing a Director-General of the WTO".
Early Maneuvering
Nominations had to be made by December 31. But the race began before then. Who might have been in? Why did some drop out while other stayed in?
A lot of people thought about running for DG: "People who might have run for WTO Director-General, but did not". In October Brazilian and Uruguayan representatives met in Montevideo, without reaching joint agreement on a Latin American candidate: "Why are there two Latin Americans in the WTO race?". In December, Kenyan Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi almost entered the race: "There was another candidate".
And then there were four
When the sun came up on January 1, there were four candidates. Felipe Seixas Correa of Brazil, Carlos Pérez del Castillo of Uruguay, Pascal Lamy of France, and Jaya Krishna Cuttaree of Mauritius. Who are these men? What strengths and weaknesses do they bring to this office?
This Jan 2 survey post linked to pages with biographical information on each candidate: "Race for WTO Director-General". The Economist also surveyed the four candidates on January 7: "The Race for WTO Director-General".
Here is a report of an interview with Mauritius Foreign Minister Jayakrishna Cuttaree: "Jayakrishna Cuttaree". Here is a post on a Financial Times column that discussed Pascal Lamy: "The pros and cons of Pascal Lamy".
Alan Oxley, former Australian Ambassador to the GATT explains: "What's Wrong With Pascal Lamy". Peter Gallagher, an Australian trade consultant, discussed Pérez del Castillo and Lamy: "Advice on who to pick as the next WTO Director-General". Both Oxley's column and Gallagher's post offer much more.
The race itself
How do you campaign to be Director-General of the WTO? Mike Moore, a former Prime Minister of New Zealand, was DG from 1999 to 2002. He described his race for DG in his 2003 book on the WTO, A World Without Walls. This post has an extract from the book, describing the race: "What's it like to run for WTO Director-General".
Mauritius sought support among the Indian diaspora for its candidate: "Cuttaree plays the ethnic card". Uruguayan Pérez del Castillo traveled to Australia to meet with the trade minister there: "What will Australia do?”. Brazilian Felipe Seixas Correa traveled to South Africa – another G-20 member: "The Brazilian visits South Africa".
The selection rules call for the presentation of the candidates to the General Council soon after the nominations end. In 2005, this presentation takes place on Wednesday, January 26: "This Wednesday’s WTO General Council meeting" and "The next step in the WTO race". A group of NGOs is taking advantage of the General Council meeting to schedule its own "public hearing" with the candidates on the evening of January 26: "Public Hearing for WTO Candidates".
The Choice
How was the selection ultimately made?
The Transition
What is involved in settling in to the office?
Last updated January 24, 2005
January 24, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Cuttaree plays the ethnic card
On January 7, the Indo-Asian News Service reported on Mauritian efforts to obtain "the support of the 25-million strong Indian diaspora spread over 110 countries for its candidate of Indian origin for the top post at World Trade Organization": Mauritius seeks diaspora support for top WTO post
January 24, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Incentives and risk-taking behavior
Michael Munger describes an effective way to make a point in class, over at Division of Labour: "Tullockania"
January 24, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
What's it like to run for WTO Director-General?
Mike Moore, a former Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand, was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 1999 to 2002. Following his term, he wrote about how he came to be Director-General:
A suggestion that I consider standing as a candidate to head the WTO came again in 1999, led by Ambassador Carlos de Perez del Castillo of Uruguay. I had strong support from Latin America and agricultural developing countries, so this time I expressed interest...
...The New Zealand Conservative National Party Prime Minister Jenny Shipley was very supportive, as was Trade Minister Lockwood Smith and retired Trade Minister Philip Burdon.
I left home on a two-week trip to see where my support lay, which turned into a three-month odyssey. The toughest part physically? A non-stop series of flights from The Hague to London, Singapore, Sydney, Canberra, Sydney, Los Angeles, Miami, Buenos Aires and Montevideo in Uruguay, without stopping to sleep, meeting ministers in most cities.
The WTO's General Council, mainly ambassadors, had decided the selection would be based on three general criteria: volume of support (codeword for numbers); depth of support (codeword for trade weight); distribution of support (codeword for general geographic distribution of support). The process was overseen by two previous Chairmen of the Council, one from a developing country and one from a developed, Tanzania's Ali Said Mchumo and Switzerland's William Rossier.
The campaign turned very ugly as other nominees - good candidates all of them - fell out through lack of support. The choice finally came down to Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand and myself. Supachai was an old colleague, but sometimes it's over-enthusiastic supporters in campaigns who take the battle to extremes. I could only laugh when a television personality in Thailand called on viewers to write my name on a piece of paper and pound it with a stone, the better to advance the prospects of their favorite son. Much more damaging, though, was learning from the Thai media - much to my surprise - not only that I had a brain tumour, but that I was a Labour union leader. Although both accusations were false, the latter was infinitely more dangerous, given the sensitivity of labour issues in the WTO. When protestors marched on the US embassy in Bangkok, it became very ugly.
The USA, Sweden, France, Germany and evenutally most of the Europeans, Africans, South Americans, Economies in Transition and small island states in the Caribbean and Pacific indicated support. Some Asians privately supported me. The British, Dutch, Japanese and ASEAN were Supachai's main supporters. I was tarred as the American candidate, bringing my impartiality into question.
I was very happy to get support from Bill Clinton's Democratic administration. Originally they were divided, with the Treasury supporting Supachai, and the US Trade Representative (USTR) and then the State Department backing me. Several Republican USTRs from earlier administrations also voiced direct and unpublicised support to those who matter. WTO Ambassador Rita Hayes from South Carolina, a skilful politician and diplomat, with strong contacts in the Senate and White House, became very supportive and a good friend. I believe I would not have gained either full US backing or the job without her.
However, I had been branded. I was never a Labour union leader. Rather I was a corporal in the movement who wished he had been a union leader, but my political life took a different road. I'm still described as a Union, US nominee. While that is literally true, I was never described as a Lesotho, Gabon, Mongolian, Papua New Guinea, French, Swedish, German, or Uruguayan candidtate, which was of course equally the case. Such is politics. But it didn't get my term off to a good start.
When the final decision was to be made, I found I'd won on all three criteria. I was never sure of the numbers, but knew I had the weight of support from the major trading nations and enjoyed better geographic support than Supachai. Had I lost, I'd have been on an economy flight home that night. My wife Yvonne and I had spent our modest savings. Then, to my surprise, WTO rules being what they are in what is, above all, a Member-driven institution, the minority vetoed the majority. If the campaign had not become so personal, I would not have been so determiend to win. I guess that's the Irish in me. The atmosphere in Geneva was poisonous. This deadlock could have enabled a new compromise candidate, several of who were waiting in the wings, to enter the ring.
I've been a politician since first getting elected to Parliament at the age of twenty-three. I have been deeply committed to the ideals of the multilateral trading regime for decades. Rather than having my opportunity to contribute, at a pivotal moment in the evolution of the global trading environment, written off completely, I cheerfully agreed to a slightly sordid deal to split the term with Supachai. Each of us agreed to take three years each."
January 23, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
The Rules for Choosing a Director-General of the WTO
The 1999 contest for Director-General (DG) was contentious. In December 2002 the WTO adopted new rules governing the selection of a DG. These rules are here: "Procedures for the Appointment of Directors-General".
Here is a news story from Bahrain's Gulf Daily News outlining the selection rules: "Four join fray for top WTO posting ".
The selection process begins nine months before the term is to begin. The current DG's term ends at the end of August, and the new term begins at the start of September 2005, so the selection process began at the start of December 2004.
Candidates are to be nominated by member nations within a month of the start of the process. When January began, four candidates had been nominated.
Shortly after the nominations, the WTO General Council is to meet to hear presentations by the candidates. That takes place this Wednesday (January 26) in Geneva. Candidates have a total of three months from the close of nominations to make their case.
The following two months are a period of winnowing out. Voting is a last resort in all this - the goal obtain a concensus for one candidate. The rules say:
17. The Chair, with the assistance of the facilitators, shall consult all Members, including non-resident Members, in order to assess their preferences and the breadth of support for each candidate. The ultimate aim of the consultation process shall be to identify the candidate around whom consensus can be built. In order to do this, it may be necessary to conduct successive consultations to identify the candidate or candidates least likely to attract such a consensus.
18. The outcome of the consultations shall be reported to the membership at each stage. It is understood that the candidate or candidates least likely to attract consensus shall withdraw. The number of candidates expected to withdraw at each stage shall be determined according to the initial number of candidates, and made known in advance. This process shall be repeated in successive stages on the basis of a revised slate of candidates each time, with the aim of establishing consensus around one candidate.
19. At the end of the final stage of the consultative process, the Chair, with the support of the facilitators, shall submit the name of the candidate most likely to attract consensus and recommend his or her appointment by the General Council."
January 23, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
What does the Mafia charge small businesses in Sicily?
The UK's Independent had a Peter Popham story this week on Mafia account books that have fallen into the hands of the Sicilian police. The books provide a mass of data on Mafia collections from small businesses.
Rafe Champion at Catallaxy has a post on the story, here: "The economics of crime and crime prevention" .
January 23, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
This Wednesday's WTO General Council meeting
The next big event in the race for Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) takes place this Wednesday (Jan 26) in Geneva.
The WTO's General Council meets Wednesday, starting at 10 AM, and each of the four candidates will be given 75 minutes to make their case. Here is an Agence France Presse report (via TurkishPress.com): Campaign for new WTO head heats up
The WTO's General Council
January 22, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Will Tsunami Donations Reduce Other Charitable Donations?
Daniel Drezer links to articles by Virginia Postrel and Daniel Gross:"The opportunity costs of tsunami aid"
January 21, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Public Hearing for WTO Candidates
The Trade Observatory reports that a group of NGOs will be holding a "public hearing" for the four World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General candidates:
The WTO is preparing to appoint a new Director-General. There are four candidates for the post of Director-General:
Carlos Pérez del Castillo of Uruguay
Jaya Krishna Cuttaree of Mauritius
Luiz Felipe de Seixas Corrêa of Brazil
Pascal Lamy of France
A group of NGOs based in Switzerland have invited the four candidates to attend a public hearing. This is an opportunity to ask each candidate about their vision for the WTO, in particular their views on sustainable development, the Doha negotiations, WTO reform, and external transparency.
Submit your questions for a public hearing on 26 January, Maison des Associations, Geneva.
Please send your questions for to Carin Smaller before noon on Monday 24th January, by email: [email protected] or by fax: +41 (0)22 789 0733
The hearing is public, and will be held on Wednesday 26 January, from 6.45 – 8.15 p.m., in the Maison des Associations, 15 rue des Savoises, in Geneva. The hearing will be in English.
As space is limited, we ask that those wishing to participate in the hearing reserve their place in advance, by contacting Carin Smaller, email: [email protected], phone: +41 (0)22 789 0724"
January 21, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Advice on who to pick as the next WTO Director-General
Peter Gallagher offers some advice on who to pick as next Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO):"The next Director General of WTO"
Uruguayan Carlos Perez del Castillo has a lot to offer:
He has direct, inside, experience of the management of WTO negotiations at the top level over a long period. He is an economist—who trained in the Australia Bureau of Agricultural Economics at the start of his career—with an excellent reputation as a recent Chairman of the WTO’s General Council. He also has a keen sense of how to manage an issue in the WTO (in 1986 he established a coalition of countries including Australia that later became the Cairns Group) and the administrative experience necessary to run the Secretariat."
His recommendations for “imposing limits on international integration to defend the legitimacy and diversity of social choices” were delivered in a measured way. But they are only a more sophisticated version of an argument against global market integration promoted by anti-trade and anti-globalist NGOs. It’s a policy fraught with ‘moral danger’ since there are no limits in principle to the ‘social choices’ that such a new class of legitimized barriers would protect and every protectionist in the world could be expected to claim its shelter.
There are already ‘exceptional’ provisions built into the WTO that acknowledge the right of governments to take non-compliant action, when necessary, to secure objectives such preserving scarce resources or national security or even ‘public morals’..."
January 20, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The next step in the WTO race
The lastest issue of the Bridges Weekly Trade New Digest (issued by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) ) reports on the next step in the race for Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO):
The four candidates to succeed Supachai Panitchpakdi as Director-General of
the World Trade Organization will address an extraordinary meeting of the
WTO General Council on 26 January.
Nominations for the position closed on 31 December 2004. The candidates to
replace Supachai when his term ends on 31 August 2005 are: former EU Trade
Commissioner Pascal Lamy, former Uruguayan WTO Ambassador Carlos Perez del
Castillo, Brazilian WTO Ambassador Luiz Felipe de Seixas Correa, and
Mauritian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Jayakrishna Cuttaree.
According to procedures agreed by Members on 13 January, each candidate will
face the General Council for 75 minutes -- a 15-minute introductory speech
followed by an hour of questions from Member delegations. Each candidate
will hold a 30-minute press conference immediately after his session with
the General Council.
Members are aiming to finish the selection process by May so as to not
interfere with preparatory work for December's WTO Ministerial Conference in
Hong Kong.
ICTSD reporting. "WTO Members to Interview Candidates To Replace Supachai as
Director-General," INTERNATIONAL TRADE DAILY, 18 January 2005."
January 19, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Why are there two Latin Americans in the WTO race?
Two of the four candidates running for Director-General of the WTO are Latin Americans: Brazilian Ambassador Luiz Felipe de Seixas Correa and Uruguayan Ambassador Carlos Perez del Castillo.
Southern South America's MercoPress news agency carried a story on a mid-October 2004 meeting between representatives of Brazil and Uruguay in Montevideo to discuss a potential Latin American candidate: "Uruguay and Brazil clash over WTO candidates".
Mr. Amorim recalled that it can’t be forgotten that Mr. Perez del Castillo opposed the G-20 request to include in the document that for an effective advancement in trade liberalization, “developed countries must first put an end to agriculture government subsidies”.
The Group of 20 headed by Brazil, India and China, and to which Uruguay does not belong, insisted in Cancun that negotiations for further world trade liberalization were conditioned to the subsidies clause which apparently Mr. Perez del Castillo, then president of the WTO General Council ignored.
Brazil therefore is sponsoring its own candidate, Brazilian Ambassador Luiz Felipe Sixas Correa."
January 19, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
People who might have run for WTO Director-General, but did not
Since the end of December, there have been four candidates for the World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General. Prior to December the situation was more fluid.
In late November, Choike.org ("a portal on Souther civil societies") looked at the range of potential candidates: Choike - Race for new WTO DG gains momentum
Choike.org listed the current four candidates. In addition, it carried speculation about others who might enter the race:
Canada’s former Trade Minister and WTO Ambassador Sergio Marchi, a developed-country contender, was in the running for the top job, but has since pulled out – as of October 10. Had he remained in the race, though, his bid would have been at a disadvantage as fellow Canadian, Don Johnston, currently serves as Secretary-General of another European-based inter-governmental organization, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
France
...Outside of any possible run by Lamy [Lamy, of course, did enter the race - Ben], however, informed sources have suggested that most likely a candidate could emerge from the EU.
Other Potential Candidates
Other potential African candidates may yet surface. For example, press reports indicate that Hon. Alan Kyerematen, the Ghanaian Trade Minister, is viewed as a possible candidate. His candidacy has yet to be publicly confirmed.
Former South African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin - now the Minister of Public Enterprises - has confirmed that he was never in the running for the position, despite rumours to the contrary. “Erwin never offered himself for the candidacy of the Director General of the WTO,” this according to Tshediso Matona, the Deputy Director General of International Trade at the South African Department of Trade and Industry.
On a more speculative note, Shotaro Oshima and New Zealand’s Tim Groser, WTO Agriculture Chair, have also surfaced in trade circles as likely candidates."
January 19, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Jayakrishna Cuttaree
Mauritius Foreign Minister Jayakrishna Cuttaree is one of the candidates for Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Here is a report of an interview with him: "AFP Interview: WTO candidate criticises EU for nominating rival" . He makes the following points:
January 18, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
What's wrong with Pascal Lamy?
Alan Oxley, former Australian Ambassador to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT - the precedessor to the World Trade Organization - WTO) doesn't think Pascal Lamy would be a good choice for head of the WTO: "Who Will Lead WTO?".
The whole idea is just too clever by half, just too European. The first flaw is that the French have not been the main problem in Europe on agricultural reform for at least a decade. Chirac always makes the biggest political play against trade liberalization (it always earns votes at home), but it is Germany that is the problem. Germany has many more small and inefficient farmers than France. Furthermore Lamy's background is in trade, not agricultural policy. In Europe, agricultural ministries call the policy shots.
But there is a bigger and much more serious problem. Lamy is a French socialist. Putting him in charge of the WTO would be like putting the fox in charge of the fowl house. Lamy did a dutiful job arguing in Europe the importance of the multilateral trading system, but you will not find one speech where he extols the virtue and wonder of free trade. All gut free traders do this. They are believers. Lamy is first and foremost a Eurocrat.
Instead he has made horrible speeches (they are all on his website) about how the multilateral trading system needs to be adjusted so it can advance ideas and values that are fundamentally inimical to the free market - creating the right to use the system to advance command and control environmental policies and to lever access to markets to require countries to adopt labor standards...
In Lamy's final year as commissioner he issued an astonishing post modernist tract arguing that at times, each member of the WTO needed the "room" to reflect "collective preference" in society to ignore basic WTO trade rules (by blocking imports Greens did not like and ignoring basic rules like treating every trading partner on equal terms). "
Peter Gallagher reviewed a key Lamy speech this past fall: "Using trade barriers to safeguard 'values' ".
January 18, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
The World Bank, the IMF, and the Asian financial crisis
Kenneth Rogoff reports that James Wolfensohn's World Bank wasn't helpful when the IMF was trying to put East Asia back together during the financial crisis of 1997-98:
Having the bank slam the IMF was carrying the two sister agencies' usual good-cop-bad-cop, routine too far. The bank not only succeeded in deflecting the ire of anti-globalization protesters onto the fund, it poured gasoline on the flames and caused real damage. This tactic surely did little to advance the cause of poverty relief, as the fund is an institution that overall has done far more good than harm in developing countries. Fortunately, the IMF has finally started to rebuild its image over the past few years, thanks in part to (so far) very successful bailouts of Brazil and Turkey."
Sebastian Mallaby spends a few pages on the Bank's involvement in the Asian financial crisis in his new book on James Wolfensohn's presidency, The World's Banker. Summarizing :
The IMF plays a more important role in addressing financial crises than the World Bank. It has financial expertise that the Bank does not, and it has an organizational culture that allows it to respond much more quickly than the Bank. "But when it came to financial turmoil, the IMF remained the expert. It could parachute into a country and come up with a prescription in a week or two; the Bank took months mulling over its analysis." (187)
Moreover, the Bank's ability to respond in Asia was hurt by Wolfensohn's management style, which led to considerable upper-level turnover. Bank efforts to put together a fast reaction "swat" team were a failure. (190, 192-193)
During the crisis, the IMF took control of relief efforts, shunting the Bank aside. This rankled the Bank. Bank staff felt their expertise was ignored. (187)
Wolfensohn was especially annoyed. The Bank's performance in the Asian crisis contrasted with a Bank triumph early in his tenure: its ability to move quickly to support the peace process in the Balkans. This had impressed the Bank's "principal stockholder," the U.S., represented by the Clinton Administration. The Bank did not look as good in Asia. (191)
Moreover, the Bank was expected to provide a lot of funding for the relief efforts organized by the IMF, without being given much input, or choice. Bank failure to put up the money when requested would have appeared to make it responsible for the failure of a plan to save a country in distress. This really bugged Wolfensohn. (192)
The result was, that the Wolfensohn sought to distance the Bank from the crisis (193-195).
Sebastian Mallaby. The World's Banker. A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Penguin Press. 2004. The Asian financial crisis is discussed on pages 183-196.
Mallaby's colleague at the Washington Post, Paul Blustein, also talks about Bank-IMF relations in his book on the crisis, The Chastening. My favorite anecdote from Blustein: even the choice of word processor divided the Bank from the IMF. The Bank used WordPerfect and the IMF used Word; they couldn't exchange files easily.
Mallaby paints a lively, but not highly nuanced, picture of Stiglitz. Blustein is probably better, but not as much fun. Stiglitz makes his own case in Globalization and its Discontents. The Asian crisis is covered in Chapter 4.
Kenneth Rogoff, chief economist of the IMF, responded to Stiglitz's charges in this unusual open letter. Here is an article on the debate from the Financial Times:"The Odd Couple of Global Finance".
January 17, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
How Well Did James Wolfensohn Do At the World Bank?
James Wolfensohn will be stepping down as President of the World Bank in June.
Ken Rogoff, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank's sister institution, evaluates Wolfensohn's tenure: "A Final Grade For Wolfensohn"
The campaign to replace Wolfensohn is on, and may be followed here: "World Bank President".
1-17-05: minor change in title.
January 17, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
My grandfather, Ben Muse, was born in North Carolina and lived in Virginia after 1934. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he worked for desegregation and civil rights. But, he started in 1898 in Durham, North Carolina, with attitudes that were typical of that time and place, and only gradually worked his way to a point where he actively opposed segregation.
Towards the end of his life, he remembered early 20th Century Durham as a city with relatively moderate racial views for the south. The white citizens believed in segregation, but they were disturbed by the lynchings from the deeper south. Moreover:
"The accomplishments of Durham Negroes had attracted some national attention and were a source of pride to Durham whites. The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company of Durham was, as it remains today, one of the largest and most successful black business enterprises in the nation. Yet racial segregation was scrupulously observed. In spite of the presence of distinguished blacks in the town, I often heard it said Negroes were like children, to be treated kindly but "kept in their place."
Matthew Lassiter explains how he moved beyond this point:
"...Like numerous other white southerners who came to oppose segregation, Muse's intellectual odyssey toward an increasingly liberal and outspoken racial stance involved highly personal experiences and time spent outside the South. In the mid-1950s, as the Brown decision changed the parameters of political discourse in Virginia and the rest of the South, Muse wrote an autobiographical manuscript (which has never been published) detailing the evolution of his own racial views. In this revealing retrospective he vividly portrayed his youthful beliefs in black inferiority and the importance of blacks remaining in "their place." His early view of history, largely influenced by D.W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation, recognized the evils of slavery while viewing Reconstruction as a tragic era of northern and black aggression justly ended by noble southerners such as the Klu Klux Klan. Muse described how his questioning of these traditional beliefs began during the years he spent abroad in the diplomatic corps, which included cultural interaction with diplomats from African nations. When he was in Paris, he noted, "race prejudice seemed provincial and unsophisticated."
Muse wrote that by the time he returned to Virginia in 1934, his racial attitudes had changed substantially, but he felt no pressing obligation to challenge the status quo. He employed black laborers on his farm in Southside Virginia during his brief stint in the state legislature, and he recalled that segregation seemed at the time to be "silly...but not outrageous or oppressive." After moving to the northern Virginia town of Manassas in the mid-1940s, Muse interacted with African Americans more frequently and on a more equal basis. Perhaps the most crucial step involved his friendship with Stephen Lewis, a local black dentist with whom he discussed political and racial issues. In hindsight, Muse concluded: "perhaps the best antidote for race predjudice, the clearest X-ray through which a white man can see the foolishness and wickedness of it, is a Negro friend."
Source: Lassiter, Matthew D. "A 'Fighting Moderate': Benjamin Muse's Search for the Submerged South." In The Moderates' Dilemma. Massive Resistance to School Desegregation in Virginia edited by Matthew D. Lassiter and Andrew B. Lewis. University Press of Virginia. 2002. Pages 170-171.; Benjamin Muse. The Twentieth Century As I Saw It. Carlton Press. New York. 1982. Page 15.
Revised April 12, 2005
January 17, 2005 in US: civil rights | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
After the Second World War my grandfather, Ben Muse, moved to Manassas Virginia and opened up a printing plant.
In Manassas he met and became friends with an African-American dentist, Dr. Lewis. Later he wrote about Lewis:
"A Manassas experience which had a profound influence upon my thinking and my life was my friendship with Dr. Stephen J. Lewis, a Negro dentist. This was from nine to four years before the Brown decision, another decade before the breakthrough in race relations of the 1960s; and Manassas, though only thirty miles from Washington, was thoroughly southern in its racial attitudes. Dr. Lewis was a highly trained dentist with the best equipped laboratory in town. More than half of his patients were white, but they tried to avoid the embarrassment of being seen talking with him on the street! Intellectually, he was superior to any of the Manassas whites that I met, but a black intellectual was a phenomenon which made whites uncomfortable, and "Doc" Lewis was still a Negro; so they shunned him as far as conveniently possible. The Negro dentist was never seen in a white home and he could not eat in any restaurant in town; he could not have a Coke at any soda fountain.
Yet Dr. Lewis longed to play a part in public affairs. He accepted the humiliation of sitting on a special bench for "colored" to attend meetings of the county governing board, and at times when there was a pause in the discussion he would rise to express his opinion on some question. Few had a better grasp of the county's financial problems than he, and when he spoke the county fathers listened. Dr. Lewis was courteous and unobtrusive, but he never cringed. A naturally proud man, stockily built and well-dressed, smoking cigars incessantly, except for his color, one would have taken him for a leading citizen. But he suffered more poignantly than Manassas whites imagined. In addition to his local practice Dr. Lewis was active in the National Dental Association (the organization of Negro dentists), and editor of its monthly magazine, which was formerly printed in Chicago. When he saw that we were setting up a substantial plant, he brought the Bulletin of the National Dental Association to us for printing. He spent many hours in my office, and there, as our friendship developed, he was intimate and uninhibited. Sometimes he was almost in tears, but basically he was optimistic, confident that before many years passed the American Negro would be recognized as an equal citizen. We talked about many things, including politics, but most of all the slow-moving trend toward enlightenment and justice in race relations. A voracious reader of newspapers, he watched pathetically for any rift in the cloud of prejudice. When he read of the ending of separation of the races in some railway passenger station, or of an attack upon race discrimination by some national figure, he would come to me jubilantly with the news. Dr. Lewis died in 1950. When I visited him in the hospital in Washington during his final illness, he was effusively grateful and affectionate. Still dreamng of a Promised Land of human dignity, he last words to me were: "I'll not see it, but it's coming. It's coming - when we'll all be just people."
The initiative in this story belongs to Lewis; he approached Muse, bringing the printing business. It would have been more convenient for him, as editor, to deal with a Manassas printer rather than a printer in Chicago. Maybe he also saw the potential for building a personal relationship on top of the commercial relationship.
Source: Muse, Benjamin. The Twentieth Century as I Saw It. Carlton Press. New York. 1982. Pages 239-241.
January 17, 2005 in US: civil rights | Permalink | Comments (1)
Good news from the Taiwan Strait
The Washington Post reports that "China, Taiwan Agree to Direct Flights"
The latest Economist has a survey on Taiwan and notes that Taiwan and China already have extensive business connections.
There is a lot of Taiwanese direct investment in China; the Economist has a figure reporting between two and three billion a year back to 1996.
Moreover, "...Some 300,000 Taiwanese businessmen and their dependants live in the greater Shanghai area...more than 70,000 Taiwanese firms have set up on the mainland..."
China's latest list of its top 200 export companies is headed by subsidiaries of Taiwanese IT firms: Hon Hai Precision Industry (whose exports from China in 2003 were worth $6.4 billion), Quanta ($5.3 billion) and Asustek ($3.2 billion). Altogether Taiwan has 28 entries on the list, all of them high-tech companies. Far from being undermined by competition from China, Taiwanese IT businesses are benefiting from their production on the mainland, increasing their global market share across a broad range of products, says Nicholas Lardy of the Institute for International Economics in Washington."
January 15, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Who will be the next USTR?
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) is the chief U.S. trade negotiator. The USTR is a cabinet level position.
The current USTR, Robert Zoellick, will be moving to the State Department to take the number two job there - Deputy Secretary of State.
Today's Wall Street Journal carried a short squib on potential candidates for the newly-opened USTR position:
January 15, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Economics Student Jacqueline Passey sees her future
"What economists do all day" Not only do we all do the same thing, we all look pretty much alike.
January 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Evolution of Australian trade diplomacy
Peter Gallagher had a nice post in September on the evolution of Australian trade diplomacy: "Ideas in Australian trade policy" The ideas that matter differ from country to country. The ideas that matter in Australia: "What ideas matter to Australian trade policy? Two of the most influential sources have been: the economic analysis of trade and the Australian experience of multilateral diplomacy."
Towards the end, Gallagher describes the origins of the Cairns Group (of developing and developed agricultural exporters) and the G-20 (developing countries with agricultural concerns):
The Cairns Group of agricultural exporters, created in 1986 with help from some Latin American economists/officials who trained in Australia has been by far the most successful of these. It has inspired some Australian-led spin-offs such as the Global Dairy Alliance and the Global Sugar Alliance driving force behind a groundbreaking and apparently victorious WTO dispute).
Both the leadership (Brazil, Argentina, South Africa) and strategies of the G-20 have themselves spun-off the Australian-led Cairns Group. Australia’s multilateral trade policy successes of the past two decades—in the Uruguay Round of WTO negotiations and beyond—have faded. The G-20, which emerged in the Cancún Conference, has overshadowed it’s Cairns Group origins and the increasing economic power of giant developing economies (Brazil, India) has secured the new group a role that could well endure longer than the diplomatic ploys of the Cairns Group, provided that it finds a basis for coherence other than opposition to the EU and USA."
January 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Any publicity is good publicity
Craig Depkin has found some interesting data pertaining to Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction: "Think Janet Jackson's Wardrobe Malfunction was a Mistake"
January 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Lesotho tossed around by tariff preferences, end of textile quotas
Peter Gallagher reports on the African country of Lesotho, to which a textile industry migrated to take advantage of U.S. tariff preferences, and from which it migrated with the end of the textile quota regime: "Lesotho textile industry shuts down".
January 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Al Hubbard at the Competitiveness Council
President Bush has proposed businessman Al Hubbard as director of the National Economic Council (NEC). The NEC coordinates administration economic policy making and implementation.
Liberal blogger David, at FUGOP doesn't think this is a good idea: "Al Hubbard". The post focuses on Hubbard's activities as director of the Competitiveness Council in the first Bush Administration.
January 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
How to help the tsunami victims
Boris Johnson, Conservative MP for Henley in the UK, says "Sri Lanka deserves more than silence - cut tariffs on its bras". Johnson is impatient with three EU minutes of silence for the tsunami victims:
If you are an Englishwoman, the chances are that you wear a bra, and if you wear a bra, there is a very high probability that you bought that garment at Marks & Spencer, and if you bought your bra at M & S it is a racing certainty that your bra was made in Sri Lanka; and if we really mean to do anything about the noble feelings that filled our hearts yesterday, and if we want to save jobs in that disaster-hit country, 54 per cent of whose exports are textiles, then we should lift the tariffs on brassieres, or soutien-gorges, as they are known in Brussels.
It would be fair to say that the bra tax, or tariff, is not in itself the worst of the evils of the world trade system, but it will do as a symbol of a huge and chronic injustice, which affects Sri Lanka and most of the poorest countries on earth. It is a system by which the West dumps subsidised agricultural produce - sugar is a good example - on third world markets, and so destroys the livelihoods of local farmers."
January 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sports Economist gets even better
I enjoy the blog Sports Economist run by Skip Sauer of Clemson University.
Now he's picking up two collaborators, John Palmer of the University of Western Ontario and The Econoclast, and Phil Miller, of Minnesota State University and Market Power. Sauer has chosen well, and a good thing is going to get even better. But I hope both Palmer and Miller will also be able to continue their own, separate, blogs.
How many contributors are optimal in a blog? In general I tend to read blogs with a small number of contributors.
Additional contributors add value for readers by increasing variety and limiting the potential for long gaps in posting. Co-contributors also reduce the burden on individual bloggers.
I find, as a reader, that there are limits to the benefits from more contributors. I tend to value the personality of the bloggers, expressed through the organization and layout of the blog, the choice of topics, and references in passing to the blogger's activities and interests. I tend to lose track of the personalities in blogs with more than two or three contributors. As a result, I find that I don't spend as much time with them as I do on the ones with fewer contributors.
January 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Textile quotas and the furniture industry
Virginia Postrel has been poring through the trade magazines, and she's found an article on the problems caused for the U.S. furniture industry as the textile quotas ended: "Textile Industry vs. Furniture Industry"
January 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Oklahoma coffin cartel
Oklahoma restricts competition in the market for caskets by prohibiting sales of caskets by anyone but a licensed funeral director, even if the seller doesn't provide funeral services.
The Institute for Justice has challenged this legislation in federal courts. Their web page on the law and the litigation is here: "Oklahoma Caskets". From the Institute's web page:
The district court and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals have upheld Oklahoma's law. An appeal has been filed with the Supreme Court, which has not yet decided to take it up.
January 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Brazilian visits South Africa
Carli Lourens reports from Johannesburg that Brazil's candidate for Director-General of the WTO will visit fellow G-20 member South Africa next week to drum up support for his candidacy: WTO Hopeful to Seek Support in SA"
SA and Brazil have solid political relations, and both countries are recognised as leaders in advancing the cause of developing countries in international trade talks.
Both countries were founder members of the Group of 20 an alliance formed to strengthen the position of developing countries on agriculture issues in world trade talks under the Doha development round banner.
SA has also just concluded a trade agreement with Mercosur, the Latin American trade bloc, giving exporters from both preferential access to each other's markets."
January 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The pros and cons of Pascal Lamy
The Financial Times surveys the this spring's three competitions to head international agencies: (1) the race to replace James Wolfenshon as President of the World Bank, (2) the race for Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and (3) the race for Secretary-General of the Organizatoin for Economic Cooperation and Development: "The wrong kind of executive search"
The next head of the WTO faces a tough challenge:
January 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bush picks head for National Economic Council
The National Economic Council (NEC) was set up by Clinton to provide coordination for economic policy-making and implementation.
The current director, Stephen Friedman, has resigned. Jonathan Weisman reports in the Washington Post that the Bush Administration has picked his successor: "Bush Picks Supporter as Economic Council Chief"
Hubbard, who raised more than $300,000 for Bush's presidential campaigns, will take over as NEC director and assistant to the president for economic policy from Stephen Friedman, a Wall Street investment banker who resigned from the post late last year. Like the president's first NEC director, Lawrence B. Lindsey, Hubbard was intimately involved in Bush's 2000 presidential run, holding policy tutorials for the candidate and recruiting other policy advisers for the campaign.
Hubbard could not be reached for comment. But friends and supporters said that, with a president who values loyalty and friendship, Hubbard is likely to be more influential than either Lindsey or Friedman. Hubbard went to Harvard Business School with Bush, and the two have maintained close personal contact for decades..."
January 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Should I own, or rent, my kitchen knives?
If you run a restaurant, says Lynne Kiesling at the Knowledge Problem, you may want to rent them: "Markets for Everything and the "Make or Buy" Decision: The Professional Kitchen" .
Kiesling's post goes "...to the heart of one of the core theoretical questions in new institutional economics – the relationship between asset specificity, the boundary of the firm, and vertical integration/contracting out make-or-buy questions..."
A great post.
January 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
There was another candidate
There was another candidate for WTO Director-General, Kenyan Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi.
The Foreign and Trade Minister or Mauritius, Jaya Krishna Cuttaree, was already in the race and working for the endorsement of the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries, when Kenya surprised the ACP countries with its intention to nominate Kituyi. The Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest reported on December 8:
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have postponed their endorsement of a candidate for the top trade job for the last three weeks, after Kenya surprised them by saying it would also offer a candidate.
ACP states had previously agreed that only one candidate would be presented from the 79-nation group, in a strategy designed to win the post when Thai WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi finishes his term in August 2005.
"We have been informed that Kenya's ambassador to the WTO in Geneva and Kenya's ambassador to Brussels have informed both the African group in Geneva and the ACP that they will not present their trade minister Mukhisa Kituyi as a candidate," Ambassador Vijay Makhan, the Mauritian foreign affairs secretary, told Reuters.
Repeated attempts to contact Kituyi were unsuccessful.
"We expect the ACP to endorse Minister Cuttaree before the end of this week as their official candidate for the post of the WTO head," he added."
Sources: From the Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest for December 8: "WTO DG RACE HEATING UP: LAMY ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY; KENYAN MAY THROW HAT INTO RING"; Nina Bhalla, Reuters (in the San Diego Union Tribune): "Poor nations to back Mauritius for top WTO job"
Note: An earlier version of this post referred to the position as "Secretary-General." It is actually the "Director-General." Additional minor revisions 1-12-05.
January 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)