Pettigrew to communists: you’re wrong, I’m right:
The stubborn opponents of globalization are living in the past while governments fight to remove barriers that punish the poor, International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Friday.
Protesters are planning to conduct several marches in an attempt to disrupt a three-day World Trade Organization meeting that begins in Montreal on Monday.
But Pettigrew warned them they won’t succeed against tight security.
“If they want to stop us, fine, good luck,” Pettigrew told a news conference.
“I trust the police of Montreal but they (protesters) should bear the responsibility that what they’re trying to do is really to screw the African cotton farmers and the African HIV victims as well.”
Somehow I doubt the WTO protestors will be scared off by that.
Re: Free Trade. Everybody points to Argentina and says that Mercantilism or Managed Trade doesn’t work. (Argentina was richer than Canada at the beginning of the 20th Century and the descended to the status of a Third World country by the end of the century. One of the distinguing characteristics of Argentina was its high-trade barriers.)
All Argentina proves is that corrupt states end up poorer. The United States and Canada prove that developing countries can use Managed Trade to build up their industry until they are capable of competing in the world.
My point is that free trade is OK for prosperous countries but not for poor countries trying to build up their industry.
if Pettigrew is simply helping African farmers and fighting HIV, then why don’t they hold the meeting in public?