Trade

May 3, 2011

By Tibor R. Machan

How ill conceived it is that government is thought to be authorized to regiment people’s economic activities and affairs should be plain to anyone who understands a thing or two about human liberty. But what happened in Tunisia to set off the recent rebellion might illuminate the point a bit. Here is what we find in the pages of THE WEEK (February 19, 2011, p. 48), originally published in The Times/N.I. Syndication:

“[Mohamed Bouazizi, the] young [street] trader had been in trouble with the authorities before....Under the dictatorship of President Ben Ali, permits were required for every form of business activity, often accompanied by a bribe. Bouazizi’s family would later claim that he had refused to pay the bribe demanded by the officials....According to other fruit and vegetable pedlars, vendors have a choice when faced with a municipal inspector: they can flee, and leave behind both borrow and merchandise; pay a fine equivalent to several days’ earnings, or fork out a bribe. Bouazizi, it seems, was not inclined to do any of these. When [a 45 year old female inspector] Hamdi began seizing his applies, he tried to grab them back, and she slapped him in the face....”

By Farooq Tirmizi 

Ausgust 25, 2009

In recent years free trade agreements have become fashionable. Thus, when two or more countries reach an agreement to allow free trade (because it is they which in the first instance imposed restrictions on free trade), it is publicized as a Free Trade Agreement. It is misleading and ridiculous! It’s not allowing free trade between the contracting countries, since there are more ‘strings’ here than the natural freedom allows!

There is a growing notion that rich countries should slash imports from poor countries whose antiquated factories are heavy carbon emitters: this eco-protectionism is in fact good old-fashioned protectionism and would hit the poor hardest.

It has been 15 years since an Indian cricket team completed a tour in Pakistan. But a new spirit of reconciliation has gripped the two countries recently. The renewal of this sporting fixture is the first tangible triumph of talks between leaders of the two countries that began at January's South Asia summit in Islamabad. Make no mistake: for the people of these cricket crazy countries it is a gesture of the utmost political and diplomatic significance.
 

During the 20th century, 200,000,000 people became the victim of state violence and lost their precious lives. But even more people became victims of another type of state tyranny and that is tyranny against consumers by denying them the many benefits from free trade.

When a citizen of South Asia looks eastward, to East and Southeast Asia, he will see the benefits of fast economic growth over the past half century. Many places, such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Shanghai, have followed Japan and left the third for the first world.

Had history followed this course, no economic and social progress would have been possible. For instance, if to save the jobs of the typists or say calligraphists or in like cases government had imposed duties on the new products and restrictions on their use were we able to go ahead with computers and information technology? Akbar, the great moghul emperor, was shown an early printing press by a foreigner. He rejected its use on the same pretext that our calligraphers would be rendered jobless.

04 September 2003 A member of the Global Freedom to Trade Campaign, A. S. Institute, arranged the launch of Freedom to Trade Campaign 2003 on September 4 at Lahore Press Club.

This Press Briefing has been arranged in connection with the launching of Global Freedom to Trade Campaign. As we know that WTO's 5th ministerial conference is going to be held in Cancun, Mexico, from September 10 to 14, this is to remind that the driving force behind the WTO was 'free trade' but the politics of big powers and its vested interests have divided this platform into warring forces. We at Alternate Solutions Institute want to stress the importance of trying to achieve global free trade through WTO, and taking advantage of this Campaign wants to highlight the fact that free trade is the way of prosperity for the people of the world.