The San Jose Mercury News published
an
outrageous op/ed trotting out once again the leftist conspiratorial view
on trade harmonization legislation, this time CAFTA.
We'll definitely be submitting an opposing op/ed, or at least a letter
to the editor.
A little check on the website of the author's organization, the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health, reveals them to be a standard left-wing organization. One of the directors is a career union guy, and the other has alternated between working for unions and working for far-left wing Senator Paul Wellstone (RIP).
Their site is poorly maintained. Their only "in the media" feature is from 2002. Several of the links on their website don't work.
But, more to the point, their arguments don't work, either. This is standard unionist anti-trade rhetoric. The accusation is that the IP industries such as pharma, Hollywood and software, have entirely taken over the USTR office, and are using trade agreements to lock-in their tyrannical dominance of developing countries.
No, in fact, one of the most noble things the US can do for developing countries is enter into favorable trade agreements with them, and influence their national policies in the right direction. Frankly, we know what policies are best for them. By holding out the carrot of favorable trade terms, we encourage their policies in the right direction.
One of my colleagues at IPI, Tony Healy, wrote an excellent article in Policy magazine of Australia that is relevant here. It's entitled "Global IP Markets Require Global Consistency," and I commend it to you. So much so that I'll attach the PDF of it below. It was intended as a defense of the Australia FTA with the United States, and as a rebuttal to a contrary article earlier in the same magazine. We also passed out about 100 copies of this piece at the WIPO IIM/1 last April.
Hopefully, Tony will start blogging for us here on IP issues soon.
A little check on the website of the author's organization, the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health, reveals them to be a standard left-wing organization. One of the directors is a career union guy, and the other has alternated between working for unions and working for far-left wing Senator Paul Wellstone (RIP).
Their site is poorly maintained. Their only "in the media" feature is from 2002. Several of the links on their website don't work.
But, more to the point, their arguments don't work, either. This is standard unionist anti-trade rhetoric. The accusation is that the IP industries such as pharma, Hollywood and software, have entirely taken over the USTR office, and are using trade agreements to lock-in their tyrannical dominance of developing countries.
No, in fact, one of the most noble things the US can do for developing countries is enter into favorable trade agreements with them, and influence their national policies in the right direction. Frankly, we know what policies are best for them. By holding out the carrot of favorable trade terms, we encourage their policies in the right direction.
One of my colleagues at IPI, Tony Healy, wrote an excellent article in Policy magazine of Australia that is relevant here. It's entitled "Global IP Markets Require Global Consistency," and I commend it to you. So much so that I'll attach the PDF of it below. It was intended as a defense of the Australia FTA with the United States, and as a rebuttal to a contrary article earlier in the same magazine. We also passed out about 100 copies of this piece at the WIPO IIM/1 last April.
Hopefully, Tony will start blogging for us here on IP issues soon.
Update: I'll attach the file as soon as I figure out how to do attachments with this blog software.