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Subject: Perhaps...

Author:
Dave (UK)

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Date Posted: 20:16:40 01/03/05 Mon
In reply to: Ed Harris (IOM) 's message, "Encouraging, but." on 17:15:54 01/03/05 Mon

You're right; some of those poll results are absurd. However, if it were truly the great unwashed who influenced this poll, surely the Costa del Sol, Majorca and various Greek islands would come top of the list?

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[> [> Subject: generosity

Author:
Ian (Australia)
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Date Posted: 20:39:08 01/03/05 Mon

The flip side of this famed American generosity is the enormous subsidies that they pay to their farmers, which help to destroy the opportunities that producers in poor countries would otherwise have to participate in world trade.

I'm not saying that the US is the only country that does this, but the US aid budget remains a very small drop compared to the damage done by their unjust trade practices.

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[> [> [> Subject: Free Trade/Foreign Aid

Author:
David (Australia)
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Date Posted: 09:11:54 01/04/05 Tue

I agree. Promoting free trade policies are the best way of increasing economic development in the third world. One of the main impediments to growth in the third world is the EUs common agricultural policy and the subsidies paid to US farmers.

Despite the fact Australia gives slightly less per capita than some European countries in foreign aid, developing countries generally do much better out of us because we do not subsidise agriculture a great deal (or at all) and tariffs on products from developing countries have been abolished here.

We have heard a lot of rhetoric from Tony Blair recently about increasing foreign aid to developing countries to fight poverty. In my opinion rather than increasing foreign aid, the UK should simply withdraw from the common agricultural policy (or do both). This would have the effect of creating wealth in developing countries rather than just keeping them poor through handouts.

Decreasing protectionism is hardly bad for domestic economies anyway - Australia's economic growth rate has increased significantly as tariffs have fallen over the past 20 years.

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