Word: tariff
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...protesters who flooded Quebec’s streets have legitimate worries about labor standards, environmental protections and non-tariff trade barriers. Unfortunately, because nations are on unequal economic footing, it is relatively more expensive for developing nations to protect workers and the environment than it is for the U.S. When the U.S. has attempted to establish these standards, developing nations have perceived them as merely protectionist tactics...
...directed against the U.S., which has managed to conclude a recent trade agreement with China but has not formalized a single free-trade agreement in its own hemisphere since ratifying NAFTA in 1994. The stumbling blocks have included politically potent U.S. labor and agricultural lobbies that believe unrestrained tariff cutting will undermine the hard-fought gains in living standards won by their members. Try to get U.S. trade negotiators to discuss eliminating sugar subsidies or lowering steel tariffs, and "they won't address the question face to face," complains Antonio Simões, the head of Brazil's trade negotiating...
...distinct trade sectors last December: a forbidding, 1,200-page document in which virtually every word is surrounded by brackets that indicate a lack of full agreement on the substance. "About the only things that aren't bracketed are the chapter titles," says a negotiator. The draft includes proposed tariff reductions on at least 7,000 products, from orange juice to rolled steel. As a map of negotiations still to come, it promises to address such cutting-edge issues as electronic commerce, intellectual-property rights and telecommunications, along with provisions to ease cross-border red tape for businesses even...
...pull the nation back onto its feet. De la Rua also appointed Domingo Cavallo, a renowned free-marketeer, as his latest Finance Minister, with sweeping powers to dictate economic changes without legislative approval. One of Cavallo's proposed rescue measures would have slashed to zero the 14 percent Mercosur tariff that Argentina currently charges on capital goods from outside the trading bloc. Brazilian officials, at first sympathetic, erupted after reading the fine print, which included tariffs on imported cell phones, computer printers and high-technology items, all among Brazil's most lucrative exports to its neighbor. Argentina subsequently withdrew...
...House of Representatives trade subcommittee. "There are 130 free-trade agreements around the world, and the U.S. is part of just two," ripostes Zoellick, who adds that pursuing such regional trade agreements as the FTAA could kick-start stalled negotiations for a new global round of tariff reductions. The White House concedes that Bush will not be bringing the crown jewel of fast track to Quebec, but he will be "coming with something," promises a senior official...