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pampango

(24,692 posts)
Sat Jun 13, 2015, 04:05 PM Jun 2015

The EU imports more from developing countries than the USA, Canada, Japan and China put together.

The EU is the most open to developing countries. The EU imports more from developing countries than the USA, Canada, Japan and China put together.

The EU is the top trading partner for 80 countries. By comparison the US is the top trading partner for a little over 20 countries.

The EU benefits from being one of the most open economies in the world and remains committed to free trade. The average applied tariff for goods imported into the EU is very low, less than 1%. More than 70% of imports enter the EU at zero or reduced tariffs.

The EU’s services markets are highly open and we have arguably the most open investment regime in the world.

In fact the EU has retained its capacity to conclude and implement trade agreements. The recent Free Trade Agreements with South Korea and with Singapore are examples of this and the EU has an ambitious agenda of trade agreements in the pipeline.

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/eu-position-in-world-trade/

All this and the best income equality figures in the world. FDR would not have been surprised.



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The EU imports more from developing countries than the USA, Canada, Japan and China put together. (Original Post) pampango Jun 2015 OP
The devil is in the details. RichVRichV Jun 2015 #1
Nice post. And welcome to DU. n/t pampango Jun 2015 #2
Good old grass fed beef. joshcryer Jun 2015 #3

RichVRichV

(885 posts)
1. The devil is in the details.
Sat Jun 13, 2015, 05:19 PM
Jun 2015

Trade deals aren't inherently good or evil, but can be either. It all depends how they're worded, who they favor, and if they're fair. It looks at first glance like the EU as a whole (since it's actually a conglomerate of not necessarily equal countries) has done a better job on trade deals than we have. According to your charts, while they might import more than we do they also export even more than they import. That's where the US has failed miserably, trade balance. I've seen nothing leaked on the latest trade deals that comes close to fixing that.


Creating a Free Trade Agreement that doesn't have means to control trade imbalance is like having a capitalistic economy free of regulations. If everyone decides to play fairly it works extremely well, but when people decide to game the system there's no way to control the consequences or limit the damage. Unfortunately we have learned all too well that corporations won't police themselves.


However it's not just the trade deals. High trading (in both directions) is a sign of a healthy economy, which is directly influenced by economic equality. The more money the poor and middle class have, the more money is spent in an economy, the more vibrant an economy is. This is exactly where anti-minimum wage and ant-welfare arguments fall apart. Both increases in minimum wage and increases in spending on the poor directly pumps money into an economy, which means higher demand for goods (more jobs) and higher trading.


A country can have the best trade deal in existence, but if they don't have the purchasing power to make use of it then it means nothing.


On a side note, no surprise to see Democratic Socialist countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland) doing so well on economic equality metrics.

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