> > ... in other words: (Mis)using "free trade" to bully smaller countries > > into compliance. So, is "free trade" about freedom or coercion ??
> Gosh. I suppose that in those countries that are not studiously neutral > there comes a time when trade-offs have to be made. Trade offs that are > about trade. Canada has made such a trade off. So have the countries of > the EU. > > Switzerland is an exception. Being neutral and being a banker to the > (covert) world gives a certain degree of autonomy. For awhile. You are quite right about the last two words -- indeed, "free trade" threatens freedom everywhere, globally, ultimately without exceptions. Confirms my point about coercion instead of freedom. (Funny that Harry mentioned Orwell. Freedom is slavery, free trade is coerced trade.) Concerning the evil banks: As your recently-mentioned article pointed out, the banking sector contributes 11% to CH's economic value added and 14% to the total fiscal revenues. This is comparable to the relative size of industrial sectors of other countries which CH _lacks_ (e.g. car manufacturing or natural resources), so this can't count as the reason why CH is an exception. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein have _much_ larger banking sectors (relatively), but did join the EU and EEA, respectively, whereas CH didn't. As for "the (covert) world": Even the EU has to admit that the French riviera is a much better place for laundering money (e.g. by the Russian mafia), due to the "laisser faire" there, as opposed to the strict Swiss anti-laundering measures. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
