Thursday, March 19, 2009

Small-scale trade war beginning?

I have been warning for some time, in various venues, about the possibility of a trade war developing from this global economic downturn. It's sad to report that it just might be coming true, although various trade agreements might moderate its intensity short of the kind of disaster created by Smoot-Hawley that lengthened and deepened the Great Depression. And it's even sadder to report that the United States has initiated one through its utterly unjustifiable and short-sighted decision to stop the pilot program of allowing Mexican long-haul trucks to operate in the U.S. rather than requiring them to change loads twice before U.S. truck finish the run. I think this Register editorial explains the situation reasonably well.

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