Free Trade for Golfers

[Joanne98]

The Latin American Trade Coalition - a chaired by execs of infamous Wal Mart, Citigroup and Caterpillar - held a final, last-ditch effort rally yesterday morning to promote passage of more discredited NAFTA model trade deals.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told of the dire need for more NAFTAs. The reason? The Colombia FTA will increase golf ball purchases by eliminating those onerous and unjust tariffs that currently plague the typical South American golfer.

Schwab held up a golf ball, referenced a recent victory by a Colombian Pro, claimed that the sort of golf balls he plays with 'are responsible' for over 1000 jobs somewhere in MA, and that we should see the connection. She skilfully avoided mentioning the brand of golf ball and intentionally did not state they were made in the US, so we are to take it on her mere assertion.

But in some ways we couldn't agree more. As the global gap between rich and poor widens, both within and between countries, Global Trade Watch also expects the golfing class in Colombia to make a killing (forgive the pun) under the FTA. Its very likely they'll spend some of the profit on increased golf ball consumption, especially if there are no big bad tariffs on them.

Hopefully at the next press conference she'll won't leave out the plight of downtrodden yacht club members and or the meager polo-playing class so that we can all forget about the inconvenient truths of the real injustices in Colombia: the murder of unionists and the repression of the basic human rights of anyone who openly states that a fair share of the wealth should go to the folks that don't own a five iron.

http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2008/09/free-trade-for.html