The European ban on imports of American beef, on the grounds that the cattle were being fed hormones, and the American retaliation against European food imports once again brings the agricultural squabble between the United States and the European Community to the forefront of trade issues.
The farm fight resembles two drunks lying in a gutter—each complaining that the other one has ruined the neighborhood. Agricultural trade fights are permeated with hypocrisy, blind self-righteousness, and incurable xenophobia. Most political leaders of industrial countries apparently believe that their own nation has a divine duty to be self-sufficient in foodstuffs, while every other nation has a sacred obligation to buy that nation’s surplus agricultural products; thus each nation seizes upon the others’ sins as an excuse to postpone correcting its own debilitating mistakes.
Comments