Re: hypocrisy as comedy

["Charles Jannuzi" <jannuzi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Zoellick, the current trade rep (a cabinet level position that seems to meet
with the NSC as much as any other part of the gov't), was on the august
Enron board of advisers and was embroiled in the disputes with India over
Enron's interests there (as we know, what's good for Enron is good for
America, too).

He also can't seem to get along with Ms. Condaleeza Rice and Mr Colin
Powell.

The US's steel tariffs were done using the language of the WTO, if not the
spirit, at least and also invoked 201 trade law in the US. The actions have
been going on since at least last spring and they moved toward the 201
measures when it looked like they were going to get burned still yet again
on 'anti-dumping' measures (the most basic protectionist measure the US
takes at the national level, though states will try and get away with just
about anything, including content laws, etc.).

 I knew pretty much what was coming as of the trade rep's official
statements in July, though everything got sidetracked after 9-11.

Although he isn't going to say it on a tour of SE Asia, Zoellick gets much
of  what US interests want. Here he looks to be laying the groundwork for
the EU being blamed when Asia finds itself unable to do anything about
excess steel capacity and bankrupt companies except sell them off to the US
metal cartelists and buyout specialists.

 The US exports deflation and distress in steel to the world, the EU part of
it then exports it to Asia. Zoellick is no metals man, but he had a position
with Goldman Sachs and will likely move up the parasite food chain when he's
done as trade rep. All the better that there will be more Asian bankruptcies
and distressed assets awaiting his next private role for American capital.
Asia apparently, when he was at Goldman Sachs, was his particular interest.

The US was calculating that Japan would stay silent (or make a little usless
noise, as they always do) about the steel tariffs. No sooner had the US
announced the tariffs than they also announced that Japan's position on the
matter was more helpful than the EU's. But apparently some trade
nationalists here in Japan (hey, they are all trade nationalists in the US
Dept. of Treas, Dept. of Commerce, State Dept., DoD, Office of the Trade
Rep, etc. etc.) got to Koizumi and said, wait a minute: Zoellick humiliates
you last October over agriculture (contaminated apples, rice of the type no
one in Japan eats) and telecoms (frustrations in US private equity having
trouble buying into the Japan market), then just makes us help pay for
retiring steel workers in the US, and you are going to back the US against
the EU on this? Are you crazy?

Now the US is steamed at Japan, too, and is starting to crank up the 301 and
super 301 unilateral sanctions machine again. Time to let the Japanese know
that their place in the post-occupation isn't about to change one bit.

Charles Jannuzi