Fair Trade or Stupidity At Its Best?

At times I am tempted to write a new book entitled — "The American Fair Treaty Agreements” with a subtitle that reads: “Stupidity At Its Best!"  

Why do I say this?

Well, mainly because America is so gullible. Read the news papers. Or listen to the news. It's all over the place. We dare not offend the South Koreans by insisting that they allow more imports of cars and beef from America—after all, they only export around 775,000 vehicles to the USA; while we export a whopping 2,100 to their country — to insist otherwise just might offend them; and we mus'nt do that.   

Excuse me. Did I miss something there? 775 thousand to 21 hundred. Yeah, that's right. Not to mention other things, such as a 40% surcharge tariff on all US beef imports, plus a whole lot of other unfavorable restrictions.

Now, do you want the results of the so-called FTA (Fair Trade Agreement)? Well, want it or not, here it is: 

The U.S. International Trade Commission has projected that the Korea FTA will increase the U.S. global trade deficit, while the U.S. think-tank Economic Policy Institute has projected that it will lead to considerable U.S. job losses. 

And, who championed this lopsided fiasco? You guessed it—the same bunch that the America tax payers just bailed out.  

U.S. financial services firms such as Citigroup have pushed for the Korea FTA. Citigroup’s Laura Lane, corporate co-chair of the U.S.-Korea FTA Business Coalition, stated that “it is the best financial services chapter negotiated in a free trade agreement to date.”  

Really? 

I’m tempted to ask, “Laura what planet did you step off of?” but I won’t, since that would be beneath my dignity. 

All right, enough of this. The bottom line is, “What does this have to do with world evangelism?” 

The quick answer is, “A lot! Primarily because South Korea is only a tip of the iceberg. Take a look at the trade deficits between us and some of our other trade partners: China, Pakistan, all of Latin America, and the list goes on and on.” 

Ask any pastor if the poor economy brought on in large part because of such unfair practices has affected missions giving, and the majority will have to answer with a resounding “Yes!”

Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac were a cause, but not the root cause. The American job market was, however. And, we do not create jobs by shipping them all abroad, and then buying their products. That's not the way it works. Pure and simple.   

So, what should we Christians do? Well, first of all, we should commit the whole misfortune to God in prayer. And, that’s not a cop-out either. Prayer does change things. The Scripture says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that— 

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 

Then, secondly, we should actively pursue avenues of expression to get the message out and do our dead-level best to see that this deficit is changed.  

Otherwise, if we don’t do something positive, we can kiss the era of modern missions good bye because we will simply not have an economy that will sustain it. 

Well, this is just one man’s opinion; but I don’t think I’m too far off base.