Trade

It always amazes me to see the different free trade stories. They always seem to mention the sugar industry and in the <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/02/09/build/world/35-freetradepact.inc">new agreement with Australia</a>, sugar is completely exempted. How does the sugar industry have such clout is what I would like to know? Australia produces lots of cattle, sheep, and wheat and these industries are going to be affected by this agreement but sugar, in all its sweetness, stands apart from the fray.<br />n<!–more–><br />nThere are a lot of theories out there about whether free trade is a good thing or a bad thing and I am not real sure which side of the argument to fall on. The thought of Australian beef competing with American beef is not a particularly scary proposition to me since Australian beef is lean, grass fed beef and would not be largely popular with the average American consumer. Now the wheat farmers might have a "little" problem with the whole idea since there is little to distinguish American wheat from Australian wheat so they would have no particular marketing advantages for them to attempt to exploit.<br />n<br />nThe agreement still has to be ratified by by congress on the American side and is subject to a vote by the Australian cabinet so it has some hurdles to jump to see the light of day. I am sure the groups opposing free trade will attempt to stop this so I will just have to wait and see whether this agreement sees the light of day or not to decide whether I need to worry about it or not. My inclination is that it is not something that is going to harm me, or the United States, in the long run.<br />n<br />n<b>The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work. Robert Frost </b>