The Free Trade mantra, espoused by governments, policy makers, agri-businesses and foolish farmers is a failing model. The sooner all come to realise this, the better.
In the current climate of the failing American economy (the sub-prime mess), with the climbing euro and off-set by the devalued US dollar, strange things are happening out there. Canada is not the only country affected by this state of affairs.
The most recent hardly believable announcement is from Germany's BMW company.
BMW plans to increase US production while cutting workers in Germany
Published: Monday, March 10, 2008 4:46 AM ET
Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, South Carolina - BMW says it will cut 7.5 per cent of its work force in Germany over two years while increasing production in the U.S. by more than 50 per cent by 2012.
"This is completely driven by the plunge in the dollar," said Greg Gardner with Oliver Wyman, publisher of the Harbour Report on automotive manufacturing activity. "It is untenable to produce at a much higher cost in Germany.".... (see full article)
Who would have thought, even 18 months ago, that things like this would come to pass. A lot of us are familiar with the sight of plant closures and lost jobs, because for years, north American jobs have moved from Canada and the US to : Mexico, India, China and any other country that had a cheap workforce and could show the mega companies more profit.
The same sort of silliness had been happening to our food processing sector (The Smithville Hershy's plant is a good example).
Bizarre as it seems, the United States, with it's incredibly weak dollar, is now as good as any third world country, for plants to locate in.
Now I say that with tongue in cheek, because of course until recently, we had that fortunate or unfortunate position, depending on your industry and point of view.
There were also some voices in the wilderness that warned a low dollar (for whatever reason) was NOT a reliable strategy for survival in the long term. It places an indirect 'cost' out there to someone, somewhere, and that is a shaky building for any economy. Indeed, at one time the United States was accusing China of having pegged its currency artificially low and where threatening to have the IMF (International Monetary Fund) intervene.
If we stay locked into this ridiculous cycle of boom and bust, that allows companies to close and open plants anywhere in the world they can see an edge, no one will ever win. Sooner or later affected countries will slip into some similar cycle of economic down term (caused by the job losses,etc.) that has plants and companies coming back, only to see the same cycle for other countries affected by the new job losses.
Another way to look at things is to consider that jobs are being stolen from one country by the next and as each new country reaches some pinnacle of high currencyand strong economy, jobs leave, pushing said country over the edge.
Is this any way to run a world economy?
In the current climate of the failing American economy (the sub-prime mess), with the climbing euro and off-set by the devalued US dollar, strange things are happening out there. Canada is not the only country affected by this state of affairs.
The most recent hardly believable announcement is from Germany's BMW company.
BMW plans to increase US production while cutting workers in Germany
Published: Monday, March 10, 2008 4:46 AM ET
Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, South Carolina - BMW says it will cut 7.5 per cent of its work force in Germany over two years while increasing production in the U.S. by more than 50 per cent by 2012.
"This is completely driven by the plunge in the dollar," said Greg Gardner with Oliver Wyman, publisher of the Harbour Report on automotive manufacturing activity. "It is untenable to produce at a much higher cost in Germany.".... (see full article)
Who would have thought, even 18 months ago, that things like this would come to pass. A lot of us are familiar with the sight of plant closures and lost jobs, because for years, north American jobs have moved from Canada and the US to : Mexico, India, China and any other country that had a cheap workforce and could show the mega companies more profit.
The same sort of silliness had been happening to our food processing sector (The Smithville Hershy's plant is a good example).
Bizarre as it seems, the United States, with it's incredibly weak dollar, is now as good as any third world country, for plants to locate in.
Now I say that with tongue in cheek, because of course until recently, we had that fortunate or unfortunate position, depending on your industry and point of view.
There were also some voices in the wilderness that warned a low dollar (for whatever reason) was NOT a reliable strategy for survival in the long term. It places an indirect 'cost' out there to someone, somewhere, and that is a shaky building for any economy. Indeed, at one time the United States was accusing China of having pegged its currency artificially low and where threatening to have the IMF (International Monetary Fund) intervene.
If we stay locked into this ridiculous cycle of boom and bust, that allows companies to close and open plants anywhere in the world they can see an edge, no one will ever win. Sooner or later affected countries will slip into some similar cycle of economic down term (caused by the job losses,etc.) that has plants and companies coming back, only to see the same cycle for other countries affected by the new job losses.
Another way to look at things is to consider that jobs are being stolen from one country by the next and as each new country reaches some pinnacle of high currencyand strong economy, jobs leave, pushing said country over the edge.
Is this any way to run a world economy?
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