---U.S. sugar industry, which claims that an increase in Central American imports, while small, could open the door to ruin.--

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If it could turn Chicago back into the candy capital of the US and brings Life Savers back from Canada, I'm all for it. Plus have HSY go thru the roof.....

And mitigates power from 1 extremely powerful lobby.................

If we could start using sugar in our products instead of that high frutose corn syrup crap, we'd be healthier and have better tasting foods.

here, here, death to corn syrup.

Not just candy, but Coca-Cola made with real sugar again? I'm all for it - as of now, the nearest sugared Coke is found in Mexico.

At Passover in Cleveland, the local Coke plant produces Kosher for Passover coke with sugar.

Over at NRO theres an article that says the steel tariffs destroyed Bush's free trade creds and that without the steel tariffs CAFTA would be sailing through Congress.

I don't buy it either.

AWW

I definitely "buy it". There were many Democrats outside of Ohio, W. Va. and Pa. that were NOT in support of steel tariffs. Bush gained nothing significant in PA. for his support of the Steel Tariffs, but he did manage to embarrass those Democrats who had taken a chance in opposition. So the net effect is those Democrats who Bush ran to the left of, are dedicated not to let it happen again.

There'd be no CAFTA without fast track. Tariffs worked.

h-man is 100% correct.

A lot of Democrats particularly from Pacific Rim States felt they got snookered over Steel Tariffs, because they opposed them while Bush backed them.

Bush didn't win Pennsylvania and Americans paid a higher price for steel than the world market in order to subsidize unionized workers and inefficient, outmoded, over-bureaucratized smokestack industries. If this is an example of what worked, I shudder to think what an example of not working is.

Sandy P.

Unfortunately won't help with the Frango Mints fiasco.

bart:

He saved the domestic steel industry, prices dropped, he got fast track, and every free trade supporter in America voted for him in 2004.

Lots of Democrats who support free trade didn't vote for him. The suburbs of NYC, Chicago, DC, LA, SF, Seattle are full of those folks.

Prices dropped? That would be the first time in world history that a tariff resulted in lower prices?

He did get fast track which is a plus, but if he loses on CAFTA, so what? CAFTA really does matter not least if you take the WOT seriously and recognize the problems along our southern border. Tying the nations of Central America closer to the States will make them allies in the WOT in an aspect of the battle where their cooperation is vital.

Also, recently Hugo Chavez is trying to forge a Caribbean Basin alliance using cheap oil as a lever.

I gave the wrong impression. I agree with OJ that the steel tariffs helped get the fast track approval necessary to get these deals done. CAFTA appears to headed for approval (by a very slight margin - House panel approved it today) and joins deals with Singapore, Australia, and others that probably wouldn't have gotten done.

bart:

Those Democrats drinking fair trade coffee?

Yes, the price drop really annoyed the free trade fanatics.

You don't have to win on CAFTA for it to have been worthwhile trying. Treaties are always tough.

Obligatory "steel tariffs and the libertarians" reference. I'm a libertarian, and I'd vote for Bush a third time, if he could run a third time. Steel tariffs are bad and all, but wailing on our enemies is much more important.

OJ: Steel prices are still much higher than before the tarriffs. 14 guage steel is selling in the high 30s (cents/lb), as opposed to 17 cents/lb before the tarriffs and the mid 20s for, more or less, the last 20 years.

Yes, prices went back up after the tariffs were lifted.

Surprising to learn that the US sugar producers who are so opposed to CAFTA include agro-businesses in Montana and the Dakotas. I thought the sugar business was limited to FL and AL. But Max Baucus is one of their biggest defenders.

Thune, Vitter, etc. voted the sugar line too.

It is flatly untrue that prices went down after the tariffs were imposed. In fact, they shot up. Some steel prices almost doubled and steel prices generally rose about 8%. Ironically, they went up even higher after the tariffs were removed. It is possible that the tariffs had little effect and that the price would have gone up anyway, but there is no argument that the tariffs reduced the price of steel, which were at historically low levels prior to the tariffs.

Yes, the tariffs were holding them down to artificially low levels which corrected once they were lifted.

I see a Noble Prize in economics in our future. What is this mechanism by which tariffs artificially lower the price of protected products?

That's the beauty of the thing--all we can know for sure is that economic theory is bunk.

You bet, especially the part that says if your production costs go up (*cough* energy *cough*) the cost of your product will also tend to rise.

Yes, making them get more efficient will drive those costs down. But that's in the long term and they think only in the short.

So, there's no point in high gasoline taxes. Glad to see that you're finally seeing sense.

David:

Exactly. The only thoing we can know for sure about raising the price of gas is that gas will be more expensive.