Saturday, August 16

Capitalism finally digs himself in (5): The Issue with Canola

There are a few undeniably good facts about the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I am not for them and am aware of their crimes to the people of the country and the region but can't close my eyes to some of the good plans they had and unfortunately didn't materialize. 
I remember working for this company called Takestan Industrial Group as a Q. C. Supervisor, we had a sort of a little crazy boss (I hope he reads this) who once asked me to an office of the Ministry of Commerce. The company was using Pressure Gauges and since the Government had implemented the " Use the domestically made product in your Manufacturing " policy, he wanted to bribe(!) some officials to be able to import pressure gauges. Stupid idea. He handed me a paper, I think, and a small box of key chains with the company logo, as the bribe(!) and asked me to go see this specific person in the office and give him the purchase request. I was a young guy and new to the job in those days, not knowing that he probably had already paid the guy a considerable amount as no one is so cheap to do anything for a bunch of cheap and ugly key chains! Nevertheless, when I went there, and I don't remember what happened as it was nearly 30 years ago, I hesitated, at first and didn't give, at the end, the ridiculous key chains! Not to mention that at that young age I knew both purchasing foreign made products and bribery are not good deeds and I was proud of myself that I didn't do the stupid and unethical things he had asked me to do. The guy was a crook and had done many other evil things. I would like just to give an example to some people who blame the Government for everything in their lives. He once said, in response to a customer's complaint regarding the delay in receiving the products that he had ordered, that he had used all the money he had received from them on a trip to Malaysia
All in all what I wanted to say is that the " Use domestically made products in your Manufacturing " policy which was introduced by the Government of Islamic Republic of Iran nearly 30 years was a very good policy which intended to help and encourage people but I do not think it was successful considering all the crooks who had money and were in business. Now the same people complain about the same Government and want to topple it! The issue is mainly in you and you don't see it. The Government was going to boost manufacturing and increase employment, something that Trump, now after 30 years has decided to do by introducing the " Buy American " policy. 
Why am I telling this story? It's because the " Use domestically made products in your Manufacturing " policy is a great plan. An example of that in a capitalist society is that Canada has introduced 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, way before even any of those vehicles even come in. China in retaliation has introduced a 75% tariff on Canadian Canola right at the time that we had a great season here in Alberta and the crop is ready to be harvested and this is after, at least, two years of lack of enough moisture. Who suffers now? The poor farmer who finally sees a good year! Had the Canadian market's door not been open like a public toilet, to let every garbage in, in the first place, and for decades now, this issue would not have been considered at all and farmers could simply focus on their work rather than being stressed as how to deal with this crap now.
(Photo: A small Canola field and silos in front)

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