How do you prepare to debate about major issues without knowing the topic?
Photo: Me debating in Korea last year
Posted by: Alfred Snider
How do you debate a topic that you have been given 15-20 minutes to prepare for? Parliamentary debaters face this challenge on every debate. They usually do not know what topics are coming up and so they have to know how to frame issues and ideas so that they make sense and proviude them with strong argumentative ground.
One way that WDI prepares these students is by providing a series of presentations about how to argue major issues so that students have a strong perspective about a larger field that topics might emerge from.
A series of five such presentations will be offered this year, and today we get the fourth of those five. John Meany offered a highly interactive presentation about debating abstract values such as liberty, freedom, equality, etc. John offered a large number of useful techniques for understanding and critiquing debate presentations about such issues.
Steve Woods of Western Washington University made a presentation about debating the environment. Steve wrote his doctoral dissertation on environmental argument and has a strong background in this area. He educated students about environmental philosophical perspectives, the interplay of social, scientific and economic issues in such discussions, errors that debaters often make they need to avoid and advice on how to frame debate arguments about environmental issues.
Kate Shuster of Claremont made a presentation about debating international relations. She reviewed the various schools of thought on international relations and reviewed these perspectives in terms of the types of arguments they use. In a highly interactive presentation she outlined how the different perspectives view conflict, international organizations, security, peace and other issues. She also gave a number of warnings about potential mistakes to avoid. In the debate I saw this morning students found this lecture to be quite useful and were avidly using Kate’s advice.
Alvaro Ferrer of Chile is lecturing today about issues of biological ethics, such as abortion, euthanasia, human experimentation, transplants, xenotransplants, DNA modification and other issues important in an age of biotechnical advances.
Tomorrow I lecture on how to debate trade issues. Just so you can get an idea of what is covered, below I am pasting into this posting the text from the handout I am giving students to accompany my lecture.
This training helps give students a framework from which to argue as well as basic background information that can be used to create argumentative strategies.
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TRADE BY TUNA
WORLD DEBATE INSTITUTE
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE WORKSHOP 2006
Alfred C. Snider, University of Vermont
STRUCTURES
WTO
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Established: 1 January 1995
Created by: Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94)
Membership: 149 countries (on 11 December 2005)
Budget: 175 million Swiss francs for 2006
Secretariat staff: 635
Head: Pascal Lamy (Director-General)
Functions:
• Administering WTO trade agreements
• Forum for trade negotiations
• Handling trade disputes
• Monitoring national trade policies
• Technical assistance and training for developing countries
• Cooperation with other international organizations
DOHA ROUND
The Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization negotiations aims to lower trade barriers around the world, permitting free trade between countries of varying prosperity. Talks have been hung up over a divide between the European Union and the United States and the major developing countries (represented by the G20 developing nations), led and represented mainly, however, by the G4 bloc.
The Doha round began with a ministerial-level meeting in Doha, Qatar in 2001, with subsequent ministerials in Cancún, Mexico, and Hong Kong, China. Related negotiations have taken place in: Geneva, Switzerland; Paris, France; and again Geneva.
FTAA
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is the expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to every country in Central America, South America and the Caribbean, except Cuba. Negotiations began right after the launch of NAFTA in 1994 and were set to be completed in 2005.
NAFTA
NAFTA provided for the elimination of most customs duties on trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States following a predetermined period ranging from 5 to 10 years, as the case may be. However, since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, the parties agreed on three rounds of accelerated elimination of customs duties pursuant to section 302(3) of NAFTA. The last round dates back to April 1998 when Canada and Mexico agreed to accelerate the elimination of customs duties on some products by January 1 2001 instead of January 1 2003.
DEFINITIONS
TARIFFS
A tax levied on imports of goods as they cross the border. These may be a percentage of the product’s value or a set monetary amount, known as ‘specific tariffs.’
NON-TARIFF BARRIERS
Government measures or policies other than tariffs that restrict or distort international trade. Examples include import quotas and discriminatory government procurement practices. Such measures have become relatively more conspicuous impediments to trade as tariffs have been reduced during the period since World War II.
SUBSIDIES & SAFETY
Give money to help producers make things more cheaply. Demand safety standards others cannot meet (EU grains and Japan beef).
PROTECTIONISM
The government's placing of duties or quotas on imports to protect of domestic industries from global competition.
HELPS: Domestic industries, workers, government in power.
HURTS: Trading partners, consumers (cost, quality).
FREE TRADE
From the United Nations: In very simple terms, free trade can be defined as the absence of tariffs and import quotas on goods. This definition is based on the notion that the market is the best device to ensure consumers can access good products at the best price, and increase global wealth. The final goal of eliminating tariff barriers and national protection mechanisms is to allow the market to operate with no constraints.
From The Library of Economics and Liberty: For more than two centuries, economists have steadfastly promoted free trade among nations as the best trade policy. Despite this intellectual barrage, many practical men and women of affairs continue to view the case for free trade skeptically, as an abstract argument made by ivory-tower economists with, at most, one foot on terra firma. Such people "know" that our vital industries must be protected from foreign competition.
HELPS: Developed nations, nations with unique products, multinational corporations, and affluent consumers, capital rich nations.
HURTS: Raw materials producers, workers in less protected workplaces, environment, increases income gap.
FAIR TRADE
From the International Federation for Alternative Trade: Fair trade is a trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers - especially in the South.
From the Cato Institute: Fair trade, as the term is now used, usually means government intervention to direct, control, or restrict trade. Fair trade means government officials decide what Americans should be allowed to buy and what prices they should be forced to pay. Fair trade is paternalism in international commerce.
HELPS: Poor producers, workers, environment.
HURTS: Multinational corporations, nations with high tech products,
BENEFITS OF FREE TRADE:
Heritage Foundation: International trade is the framework upon which American prosperity rests. Free trade policies have created a level of competition in today's open market that engenders continual innovation and leads to better products, better-paying jobs, new markets, and increased savings and investment. Free trade enables more goods and services to reach American consumers at lower prices, thereby substantially increasing their standard of living. Moreover, the benefits of free trade extend well beyond American households. Free trade helps to spread the value of freedom, reinforce the rule of law, and foster economic development in poor countries. The national debate over trade-related issues too often ignores these important benefits.
PROBLEMS WITH FREE TRADE
Economic Policy Institute: Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1993; the rise in the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico through 2002 has caused the displacement of production that supported 879,280 U.S. jobs. Most of those lost jobs were high-wage positions in manufacturing industries. The loss of these jobs is just the most visible tip of NAFTA's impact on the U.S. economy. In fact, NAFTA has also contributed to rising income inequality, suppressed real wages for production workers, weakened workers' collective bargaining powers and ability to organize unions, and reduced fringe benefits. NAFTA is a free trade and investment agreement that provided investors with a unique set of guarantees designed to stimulate foreign direct investment and the movement of factories within the hemisphere, especially from the United States to Canada and Mexico. Furthermore, no protections were contained in the core of the agreement to maintain labor or environmental standards. As a result, NAFTA tilted the economic playing field in favor of investors, and against workers and the environment, resulting in a hemispheric "race to the bottom" in wages and environmental quality.
Mexico diet changes example.
DOUBLE STANDARDS
Rich nations want free trade, but will not give up protection of important sectors, specifically agriculture. This destroys agriculture markets for their products in richer nations.
UNEQUAL BARGAINING
Rich countries can shop around. Rich nations can use other means (aid, loans, etc.) to pressure majority world nations into not demanding an end to double standards.
CRISIS OF SPECIALIZATION
If you produce one thing best, you become dependent on it, and if demand changes, you are left with nothing. Bauxite example in Jamaica.
LOAN REPAYMENT
International Monetary Fund demands loan repayment. Much of the money was stolen or misused. IMF then demands an export-focus for the economy and slashing of social programs. The loans get paid back through export, but the export does not benefit the people.
WORKER RIGHTS
If you can pay your workers almost nothing and put them in unsafe conditions, you can sell more cheaply. Nations without unions and worker protection laws are abused.
ENVIRONMENT
Countries without environmental protection laws can produce more cheaply. Also develop industries of toxic disposal, recycling, etc. that hurt the environment. Not able to enforce protection laws, Indonesia lumber example.
RACE TO THE BOTTOM
Producers can shop around for locations that abuse workers and the environment the most.
WDI 2006 Blog
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
