Russia

[furrowtickler]

liberty, it improves their bottom line and does not and never will lower the cost of Canadian equipment - Go price out something new right now - don't kid yourself, ever since the so called grain price rally last year "new" equipment has risin dramaticaly.(I know the U.S. dollar excuse is a factor as well). Additional jobs in manufacturing are great as were the huge profits and bonuses made by the fert companies last year, but we pay dearly for all their glory.

[classicalliberal]

Protectionism only protects those in the particular industry that they want to protect from foreign competition at the expense to the consumers which in this case is the Russian farmers. People are very ignorant if they think that the prices to the consumer won't go up and the choices go down but governments again and again continue to do such things. It doesn't surprise me coming from Russia, they are not exactly the bastion of progressive economic policy, no need to explain history there.

For those people to ask why we would sell things to help our competitors in other nations become more efficient at producing grain is a protectionist sentament in that in order to protect your way of life and from competitors who can produce cheaper than the local producers who we are to feel sorry for and to help and to pay extra for. Society benefits more by exporting the things that we have a comparative advantage in and importing things that we have a comparative disadvantage in.

[liberty]

According to Furrowtickler, foreign sales "... improves their bottom line and does not and never will lower the cost of Canadian equipment."

What do you expect foreign sales to do for a manufacturer? Ruin their bottom line? If it did that, they wouldn't bother with foreign markets in the first place.

As for the notion that foreign sales don't lower the cost of Canadian equipment, just wait until those foreign sales dry up. Any price drop will be temporary and small. As soon as manufacturing concerns begin to close down, selection and competition will decline and equipment prices will rebound.

The simple fact of the matter is that more equipment moving through a factory helps to spread out the cost of improvements in production techniques. Move less product through a factory and your per-unit costs go up, which are then passed on to the end user.

I also wonder what the reaction of some of the posters on this forum would be if Russia decided to slap a 25% tariff on imported grain. Would you cheer for that, too?

[checking]

Interesting opinions about Russian tractors and combines, and lamenting that North American agricultural interest would trade away our technology. I take it from that, that you similarily, if you had farmed in the 1970's and 1980's, would have had a predudice towards the sound of a T-34 Russian army tank engine on our prairie fields. The WW11 veterans that are still around tell me that they could hear those engines coming from miles away, and the sound was something that they have never forgotten..... The first generation Russian tractors that hit our shores, the 7010 V8 turbo charged, and the 7100 V12 4WDs had these tank engines. Those tractors were crude, rough, and dusty. They steered themselves because if you tried to steer them you wore yourself out. To turn around a field obstruction, like a power pole, required a figure 8 pattern. Hydraulics were an issue until they converted over to NA style. The things you could not complain about were their fuel efficiency, their power and their cost. At the end of their life cycle as they hit the scrap pile, they had paid for themselves, and owed you nothing. That cannot be said of most NA creature comfort machines. As to unsealed cabs, most farmers know that their kids aren't worth a damn until they have eaten at least a pound of dirt, and you had no problem receiving your allotment sitting in the bench style buddy seat!!! As to trade, I'm disappointed that some of you fear that keeping another nation down is the only way to keep yourself competitive. I would argue the Red Green side of the equation that "we are all in this together, and I'm pulling for you".