Santiago Benitez
Salazar
Modern Political Thought
The government of Mexico is trying to improve
its economy by reducing trade barriers. Since 1994 the government has attempted
to establish that kind of policies and last Friday started a program where they
reduced the rate of taxes that they receive from commerce (exports and imports)
and specifically in the market of food. For example the tax rate received was
21.7% and now it is 14.2%. In a future this tax is going to be lower because
the program says that this reduction will be gradually. In 2017 is going to be
4.2%.
There are a lot of products that are important
for Mexican citizens, that going to be greatly benefited by this policy: The
tax rate for Wheat was 67% and now it’s going to be 15%, Potatoes from 245% to
75% and powdered milk from 63% to 45%. In the notice we can seen that Lorenza
Martinez (Member of government economic issues) argue that government is making
this policies in response to the bad results that Mexico is obtaining in
competitiveness. Mexico is the 8th in the ranking of more
protectionist countries in some branches like food and chemical products.
One of the bases of neoliberalism is the
“Markey Fundamentalism”. For Neoliberal thinkers free markets promote
efficiency in almost all the branches but not only that, markets can solve
every problem instead of government intervention. For the case in Mexico the
neoliberal debate is an important topic in public agenda. The ones that
promoted the policies since 1994 say that neoliberalism has been good. For some
other groups neoliberalism not only has failed but has been an obstacle to
Mexico`s growth. For example few days ago #YoSoy132 movement made an
announcement where they said that neoliberalism has been a drag in Mexico`s
growth. The truth is that a real neoliberalism hasn’t been established in
Mexico. Corruption, mismanagements, and policies that only benefit the welfare
of the elite have accompanied the word “Neoliberalism” in Mexico, but
paradoxically there are concepts against neoliberalism bases.
Establishing neoliberalism policies only in
order to follow international tendencies is a stupid policy. Those new kinds of
neoliberal policies are going to work? The answer is “who knows” anybody can
predict future even the best neoliberal thinker. However there are lots of
facts that we can mention. The first one is that the food market is especially
important and sensitive by the main reason that people need food to survive and
because poor people cannot have access to a lot of food basic products because
of their prices. What if this open economy leads the prices to increase at
levels in which more people every time have difficulty to access to food? There
will be a food crisis. On the other hand neoliberals can defend their position
by saying that national producer will be benefited because they will have
access to better prices and can export their products in more easier way. But
there is experience in Mexico in that. Enterprises are not able to compete with
international practices. So, is a bad neoliberal policy? The answer is no.
however like almost all neoliberalism in Mexico is misapplied. First Mexico
needs deeper reforms and then that kind of neoliberal policies can give good
results.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario