Auralia wrote:Cowardly Pacifists wrote:With all due respect, you should read your proposal again. I don't see anything in there about Most Favored Nation status, which would (I guess...) include everything commonly understood to come with that status IRL; including the principle of reciprocity. You do talk about "the most favourable trade preference," which as far as I can tell has no special meaning. Presumably it means just what it says: even if your nation "prefers" to trade with another nation, you must give other nations the same trading terms you would give that preferred nation - regardless of whether those other nations offer to reciprocate.
Ah, now I understand what you're talking about. Sorry for the confusion. No, even MFN as implemented in the GATT does not include a requirement for reciprocity.
Umm... no. It's simply daft to claim that GATT and MFN don't involve a principle of reciprocation. It's one of the founding principles of free trade and one of the requirements for that theory to work. The second damn line of the GATT treaty reads: "Being desirous of contributing to these objectives by entering into reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements directed to the substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade and to the elimination of discriminatory treatment in international commerce[.]"
I cannot believe you really just said that. How can you claim to draft legislation on this area of law without even acknowledging the existence of a key tenant of the free trade agreement you're trying to emulate.
As always, Auralia, simply denying that a principle exists will not make it go away. I say again: you've tired to shoehorn an elegant RL treaty into a brief blunt instrument that does not really do the same thing. The failure to include a principle or requirement of reciprocity in trade preferences is just one example. If I had more time, I could flush out others. But this is likely going to pass, so why waste my breath. I'll just vote against and be content to use the exceptions to do whatever I want (just like RL nations).
Best Regards.