Agreed, as must all unfair and illegal tarriff setups. Free trade should be exactly that FREE.
[quote=“fred smith”] Um Gatt has been gone for like 10 years. The new organization is known as the WTO.
I don’t agree with the current subsidies nor do I believe that they helped farmers. Given that most money goes to large corporate farmers anyway, the better solution would have been to offer welfare payments directly to farmers based on income rather than production. No? [/quote]
Agriculture is engrained in people as is the land. Every see John B Keane’s “The Field”.
In Ireland the farmer’s union was one of the biggest unions for years, as in other countries in Europe.
The agricultural sector is getting smaller now as is the influence of the farmers on the government or on the EU. I am not blaming the farmers here for exploiting the situation. They had genuine concerns. Farming was not their job, it was their life and they wanted to protect this.
[quote=“fred smith”]
Now, you get French wineries importing Argentine wine and paying nothing for it, mixing it with French wine to up to 49% and bottling it and getting EU subsidies. The system is corrupt and distorts the market. Subsidies. All of them. Must go. [/quote]
This may sound cruel but it was better that they were importing it for half nothing than not importing it. At least the Argentinians were getting something.
Subsidies are gone after this year.