Charting Free Trade: Medical Procedures Department

Next step: Hit Expedia for cheap tickets.

HOW MUCH CHEAPER is it to get a medical procedure done outside the United States than within the 50 states? The Economist gives us a sobering answer in this chart to the right. Perhaps it may be time to fly to New Delhi for that hernia surgery you need to get.

Trade Talk Daily

Coming in. Leaving out. Ships such as this one in San Francisco Bay bring the cargo America needs and sends out the imports the world wants.

What’s happening in the free trade nation. Updates and new stories are marked with an *:

• How not to handle imports: As part of its latest move to improve safety from terrorism, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bureau is attempting to enact a rule called 10+2, through which it would collect 10 new categories of detailed information on shipments — including physical location of the cargo aboard ships — coming to and from the country within 24 hours of being transported out, according to The Detroit News. The problem? It could lead to delays in gettingFree Trade Nation › Edit — WordPress cargo to companies, especially those manufacturing on a “just in time” basis. Now the National Association of Manufacturers and other groups are looking to delay or scrap the law altogether.
• More perspective on Doha: This time, from legendary Columbia University economist Jagdish Bhagwati and his colleague, Arvind Panagariya, in the New York Sun. Noting that the more successful Uruguay Round took longer to resolve itself, they contend that there is plenty of room for compromise by Indiana and the United States on the matter of allowing for the former to get the use of one of those Special Safeguard Mechanisms to protect its farmers. What Bhagwati and Panagariya fail to mention is the battling within the G-7 over the bound rate — or maximum tariff they can charge over the amount agreed during another World Trade Organization negotiation session — that each can have. Compromise may not be so easy after all.
• Why Southern Africa’s trade regime may not work: Corrupt, theft-prone kleptocrats. A leading nation with leadership unwilling to ride herd on its allies over anything. And, of course, Mugabe and Zimbabwe. And this isn’t even considering the theatrics of the King of Swaziland, who isn’t known for any restraint. No wonder why Cape Times columnist Hans Pienaar isn’t placing bets on the success — or even the survival — of the newly-launched Southern Africa Development Community. The battling with the European Union over the replacement of special arrangements these nations have had with the far larger trade block may also play a part in deciding SADC’s future.
• Reminding people of the benefits of free trade: The Consumer Electronics Association has put together “America Wins With Trade,” a national tour on which politicians are introduced to companies with major overseas sales. Among them: Kimber Cable in tiny Odgen, Utah, for which foreign sales account for more than 75 percent of weekly sales.
• Protecting German businesses from foreign acquisition: Earlier this year, the Japanese began putting together renewed efforts to keep multinationals from buying its domestic firms. Australia is weighing the same effort. And now, Germany — long a fan of keeping foreign ownership to almost nil — is proceeding with its own efforts, according to Forbes. The German government plans to review any acquisition of interests in German firms greater than 25 percent by firms not based in Europe . Essentially, the rule will target American, Brazilian and Chinese firms (the latter of which are flush with cash from domestic growth and rise in commodities prices) as well as sovereign funds controlled by Singapore, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As if Germany, a country struggling to improve its economic growth, can afford to spurn any form of foreign investment.