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Liberalization of Markets

The Negative Consequences of Agricultural Marketing Boards

In order to promote a change of agricultural policy, we briefly review the cases of countries that have abolished or are in the process of abolishing quota systems: the buyback and abandonment of milk quotas in Australia, of tobacco and peanut quotas in the United States, the elimination of milk quotas in Switzerland and the beginnings of a process of abandonment of milk quotas in Europe. Canada could follow these examples by abandoning mandatory membership in marketing boards and by imposing a temporary tax to buy back farming quotas.

The proposed alliance between Air Canada and United Continental

Traditional airlines have had a lot of trouble remaining profitable over the past decade. In order to cut costs, they formed partnerships to coordinate ticket sales, flight schedules and baggage handling among other things, while simplifying connections. This need to reduce costs has become even more crucial with recent increases and constant fluctuations in the price of oil and with the greater competition stemming from the arrival of a large number of "low-cost" carriers onto the market.

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