Mandelson the Tit.

God this man continues to prove what a complete tit he is.

Mr Mandelson said the criticism from the United States, Canada,
Australia, Brazil and New Zealand was motivated "entirely by self
interest". He insisted Europe, which has offered to slash its highest
agricultural tariffs by 60pc to create a more level playing field for
trade, had done its utmost.

Come along now Petey Boy, those high tariffs hurt us, the people of Europe. They make us poorer. It is in our direct interest to get rid of them.

Sandra Gallina, the Commission’s chief negotiator, said the mood of the
talks had changed to one where people were using their calculators to
add up what was in their own interest. She added that she wanted to
dismantle the high tariff in the US on imported ceramics and brass, a
move that would benefit the UK’s pottery industry. "There is billions
of dollars of trade there," she said.

Dear Lord, how have things come to this? We have a trade negotiator who doesn’t get the most basic principle. She’s not there to force other people to take our exports, nor to insist that the citizens of the USA become richer by being able to purchase cheap goods. She’s there to enable us Europeans to get richer by being able to buy cheap imported goods.

How in hell did we, 188 years after the publication of Ricardo’s tome on the subject, end up with a bloody mercantilist screwing up the trade system for us?

In

6 responses

  1. Mr Mandelson said the criticism from the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand was motivated “entirely by self interest”.

    “The whole army was marching out of step except for little Johnnie”. Would anyone who considers the Bush administration’s policy to be “unilateral” care to defend the EU’s going against the consensus opinion of the rest of the developed world?

  2. The political realities are two-fold : Firstly, trade policy reflects political pressure exerted by member states on Commissioners – which in turn tends to reflect producers interests not consumer interests. Unfortunate, and it would be better if that were not the case , but there it is. Mandelson has a constituency to play to and its not the 350 million consumers in the EU – it’s EU block trade ministers and their producer lobbies. To be even remmotely effective as a commissioner he has to listen to those people who sign his negotiating mandate. Fact of life. And so he makes the “right” noises.
    Secondly, there are things we would like from trade negotiations other than just cheaper imports – better market access for one, acceptable solutions to various property rights issues, geographical indications, counterfeiting etc etc. To get progress on these issues you need bargaining chips. And domestic market access is something you can offer as a carrot. If you give it away at the start you may not get anywhere on the other issues.
    That’s why almost all trade negotiations follow this apparently crazy mercantilist pattern. Everyone guards their own markets partly to get bargaining chips to open up other’s markets … and everyone else does the same… and round and round it goes. That’s the “situational” logic. It’s been the same in every trade negotiation round you can think of. I mean – if everyone just followed Ricardian logic you wouldn’t even have negotiation rounds. They would not be needed. But – in the language of game theory – it’s not the dominant strategy.
    I think it might be fair to have a go at him for the rhetoric. But hardly for not understanding the economics. Even if you fully understand the economics I’m afraid the incentives are such that people act in a mercantilist manner.
    Tim adds: Yes, of course, to all of what you say. Yet there is still a place for someone to be shouting “But you’re doing it all wrong!”

  3. having said that, he’s as good a target as anybody….

  4. John Thacker Avatar
    John Thacker

    I dunno, if Mandelson’s a “complete tit,” what does that leave for Chirac and the other French who refuse to go as far as him in cutting tariffs? What is a more-than-complete tit?

  5. A tit and a half.

  6. Yeah Tim, I agree with you that the craziness of this stuff needs to be pointed out. On many issues I don’t share your views, but more power to your elbow.

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