• International trade deals with individual US states

    From Jethro_uk@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 29 07:10:33 2024
    Prompted by

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/29/disbelief-as-us- uk-trade-deals-under-threat-after-britain-axes-negotiators

    I find myself wondering how much a trade deal with a single US state
    could be worth, and is it not the purview of the Federal Government
    anyway ?

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  • From micky@21:1/5 to jethro_uk@hotmailbin.com on Sat Jun 29 10:09:37 2024
    In misc.legal.moderated, on Sat, 29 Jun 2024 07:10:33 -0700 (PDT),
    Jethro_uk <jethro_uk@hotmailbin.com> wrote:

    Prompted by

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/29/disbelief-as-us-uk-trade-deals-under-threat-after-britain-axes-negotiators

    I find myself wondering how much a trade deal with a single US state
    could be worth,

    Several or many states have trade representatives to individual
    countries. I suppose most of that is to help along private investment
    in one direction or the other, and some is to come up with ideas to
    lobby Congress for, but regardless, if it's worth it to US states to
    send reps to other countries, it would be worth it for the other
    countries to send reps to the US. Whatever it is that they do.

    FWIW, almost at the end, the article says "State-level deals have seen
    some recognition of British professional qualifications and removed some regulatory barriers." As one who frequently doens't make it to the end
    of an article, I would understand if you missed that part. :-)

    The article mentions Indiana, Oklahome, and Florida. Indiana has lots
    of corn mayby you want, and Florida has baskets woven underwater, I
    hear. I hear they teach, or used to teach, underwater basket weaving at
    the U of Florida, so it must be an important product. :-) Well, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_basket_weaving implies it's not
    taught anywhere, but who are you going to believe, a bunch of pointy
    headed intellectuals on the web, or me?

    and is it not the purview of the Federal Government
    anyway ?

    Tariffs, yes. A few import or export itesm banned altogether, but
    probably Britain bans the same items, so I doubt the reps to states have
    any desire to avoid those bans. Other than that, I don't know anything
    about this topic. :-)

    --
    I think you can tell, but just to be sure:
    I am not a lawyer.

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  • From John Levine@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 29 13:44:29 2024
    According to Jethro_uk <jethro_uk@hotmailbin.com>:
    Prompted by

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/29/disbelief-as-us- >uk-trade-deals-under-threat-after-britain-axes-negotiators

    I find myself wondering how much a trade deal with a single US state
    could be worth,

    Not very much. The state offices are mostly for trade promotion, trying
    to get foreigners to buy stuff made in the state or invest in the state.

    Given the track record of recent UK Conservatives, it would not be
    surprising if someone had the bright idea to negotiatw with US states
    without bothering to check if the states are allowed to do that.

    and is it not the purview of the Federal Government
    anyway ?

    Art I, Sec 10 of the US Constitution says:

    No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; ...

    No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, ... enter
    into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, ...

    There is very little case law about the validity of agreements between
    states and foreign countries, and most of that is quite old.

    The rule about compacts between states is that they're generally OK if
    they don't try to usurp Federal authority. States routinely accept
    each other's professional qualifications so it wouldn't be a stretch
    to say they can accept foreign qualifications too.

    --
    Regards,
    John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
    Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

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