In his March 5-March 11 newsletter(2), MacLean criticizes Terence Corcoran(3) of the National Post for castigating the "new global rush" to "undermine anything that smacks of intellectual property." And in this respect, we have provided evidence, in one recent article, of the absurdity to protect Monsanto's intellectual property right over the natural right to work on our own land(4).

In the above mentioned newsletter, MacLean points out that the present monopolies granted to the big multinational corporations in the form of patents and copyrights are not socially optimal, and as a consequence, such monopolies are one of the reasons for the present growing gap between rich and poor countries, and between rich and poor people within one country.

Different prominent economists are becoming aware that free trade is not about the free circulation of goods and services around the world, but about the protection of patents and copy rights of the big multinationals(5)(6). Conventionally, free trade is advertised as the breaking of tariffs by different countries for the free circulation of goods and services, but the reality is far away from this biased advertisement. In fact, tariffs, in general, would increase the price of a commodity by at most 20% of the ongoing related price in the country of origin; but as our economies have shifted to a higher proportion of products and services which can be digitized then the increase of prices would be irrespective of any country and could be in the order of thousands times greater than the marginal cost to produce these products and services(7) (almost zero in digitized products or services).

As a consequence, contrary to conventional wisdom, free trade is not about free circulation of goods and services, but more and more about the protection of patents and copyrights held by the big multinational corporations.

References/endnotes

Relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. The Emperor Has No Growth: Declining Economic Growth Rates in the Era of Globalization, by Mark Weisbrot, Robert Naiman, and Joyce Kim, http://www.cepr.net/IMF/The_Emperor_Has_No_Growth.htm

2. CANADA'S ECONOMY IN THE NEWSPAPERS, by Brian K. MacLean, http://www.geocities.com/brian79/mar112001weekly.htm

3. Why profits come before people, Terence Corcoran, March 8 2001 National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20010308/494357.html

4. Globalizing our economies and manufacturing our justice, by Mario deSantis, March 30, 2001 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2001_300/desantis349/schmeiser_Monsanto.html

5. The Mother-in-Law of Invention. The patent system sucks because it overrewards and underrewards. Here's a way to make the system work better. By Steven E. Landsburg, Jan. 12, 2000 http://slate.msn.com/Economics/00-01-12/Economics.asp

6. Patent Medicine, by Dean Baker, Volume 12, Issue 2. January 29, 2001, http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/2/baker-d.html

7. The fabulous Baker boy, Brian K. MacLean, March 19, 2001, National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost/story.html?f=/stories/20010319/504165.html