DEAR EDITOR
Dear Editor A World Market? We are indebted to Gus Tyler for deflating the idea that the Smoot-Hawley tariff enacted in June 1930 was the cause of the Great Depression, if only because...
...Does this call into question the value of international trade...
...it does when referring to the mass products of everyday consumption...
...The EEC countries, in trying to create an economic, psychological and eventually a political unit, know their aim will be advanced by driving to workin Fiats, Volkswagens, and Renaults, not in Toyotas and Nissans...
...Answer: Korea, Japan and France...
...If, despite the Administration's strenuous efforts, we do not have the leverage to ordain a world market in the general sense, is the alternative a degree of protectionism...
...Actually, it is merely a slight exaggeration to say the United States is the sole place on the face of the earth where a world market in the general sense exists-a market, that is, where everyone is free to buy and sell whatever he likes, in theory furthering the universal good...
...What does the present state of international economic affairs mean for us...
...Edward Tracy, author...
...Today we are flooded with them, as well as with semi-finished goods and component parts...
...plus regional markets on the model of the European Economic Community...
...The bulk of economic activity, after all, is concerned with very conventional products...
...Chrysler's Lee Iacoccahas stated that when imported components are included, foreign manufacturers come close to having taken over 50 per cent of the U.S...
...Which are the leading protectionist countries of the world...
...Undaunted by years of unsuccessful negotiation, and incredulous at the world's refusal to see the great truth of free trade, the Administration keeps plowing ahead, trying to get a contract to build an airport in Japan, or sell them some telephone equipment, or cigarettes, or rice...
...why should they hire foreigners from 10,000 miles away to undertake a perfectly ordinary local construction job...
...Which group is doing better...
...They have the equipment, the labor, the know-how...
...This may explain the Administration's indifference, verging on satisfaction, toward the deterioration of our industrial and financial position...
...Answer: England and the United States...
...This is the kind of market the Reagan Administration thinks it has the clout to ordain virtually everywhere...
...We are indebted to Gus Tyler for deflating the idea that the Smoot-Hawley tariff enacted in June 1930 was the cause of the Great Depression, if only because our foreign trade was microscopic in those days ("The Wrong Shadow of Smoot-Hawley," NL, January 11-25...
...It also seems to be a club our Administration has found convenient for depressing American labor standards, as part of its general attempt to dismantle the New Deal...
...That population is the weapon in their drive to conquer a substantial part of the world economy...
...Unfortunately, one of our principal export specialties, food, has declined considerably in importance as Western Europe, India and China have become self-sufficient, leaving only the Soviet Union as a major customer...
...It refuses to accept its own finding that what in fact exists is an international market for national specialties (French wine, German specialized machinery and sports cars, Scotch whiskey,, Japanese cameras and popular-priced cars, Arabian oil, American food and computers, Australian wool, etc...
...We might check, too, into the odd fact that a number of countries in Western Europe, notwithstanding high wages and even higher social benefits, remain very competitive...
...The other eight are: Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correpondent, Associated Press...
...Joseph Cicippio, acting controller, American University of Beirut...
...and Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Alann Steen, professors, Beirut University College...
...Which are the leading devotees of free trade...
...It is, and to remove any doubt I would like to close with three questions...
...Since the world seems to have reached the stage of regional, rather than global economic integration, we should act accordingly, encouraging producers of specialized products to export-and here the State Department ought to be the unpaid salesman for American industry-while supplying our routine needs with our own products...
...We might also learn a few basic lessons from the Japanese: the value of cooperation as well as competition, and the value of thoroughness and solid quality over mere novelty...
...Japan, even if it were willing to import food freely, is a limited market of light eaters...
...It does not when referring to the exchange of specialized products...
...car market...
...That the Japanese cars may be better and cheaper is of lesser consequence...
...Indeed, except for the occasional German camera or peripheral luxury product, back then foreign-made consumer goods were rarely seen in the U.S...
...It means that we, like Japan and every other country, have the right to run our own country for our own convenience (as opposed to running somebody else's country for our own convenience, which is not a bad definition of imperialism...
...In the case of smaller countries unable to effectively produce all the routine products they need, the natural solution is to join into regional units such as the Common Market...
...New York City Joseph M. Diamond Correction The February 22 "Between Issues" column mistakenly reported that Marine Lieutenant Colonel William R. Higgins is the ninth American to be kidnapped by Lebanese extremists...
...In addition, William Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut, died in captivity in June 1985, and the Reverend Benjamin F. Weir was released in September 1985.-Ed...
...Frank Reed, director, Lebanon International School...
...Thomas Sutherland, agriculture dean, American University of Beirut...
...In Tyler's phrase, "the U.S...
...As far as the airport is concerned, I'll take the Japanese side...
...The rice makes more sense, but don't expect them to ruin their agricultural population, on which the ruling party depends for votes, to save their consumers some money on rice-money those consumers might then use to buy appliances that might otherwise be exported...
...He is the ninth now being held...
...is the world market for all major economies on the face of the earth...
...advanced technology is only the icing on the cake...
...Besides, the powers that be in Japan have every reason to be satisfied with their frugal, well-trained, noseto-the-grindstone population, and no reason to widen its modest horizons...
Vol. 71 • March 1988 • No. 4
