Zoning Issuse discussion

The City of Providence is considering zoning changes. As laid out in Providence 2020 Plan and in draft changes to the city's Comprehensive Plan, the working  waterfront area along the Allens Avenue Corridor - north of Thurbers Avenue and south of the relocated I-195 -- would be rezoned for mixed uses such as residential condominiums, marinas, hotels, retail shops, and restaurants. Artist renderings in these planning document portray an idyllic waterfront filled with glitzy new condos, hotel, and boats moving about the port.

                                                     picture from google map


"This kind of changes have a great impact on the traditional local working waterfront industry. They are incompatible with the normal functioning of a vibrant working waterfront. "---Working Waterfront Alliance


Providence is a gifted coastal city. It's no doubt to use its gifted to improve city construction and income. No matter tourist industry or shipping and waterfront industry is the good choice to enhance the city's economy, but that change the working waterfront zone to the tourist zone will restain the working waterfront industry. At the mean time it will lead the government to pay more, because for this area government have to pay the fees for the rebuild to make it good looking and also pay fees for the working waterfront industry for the land.


Actually,  south main st area is a good choice instead of the this area. There is more nearby downcity and will contribute to consum. Meanwhile, there are a lot of plain land in this area which will reduce the government's cost.

Helping developing nations:Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme for LDC’s

There are some characteristics of developing nations, relatively low per capital GDP, relatively short life respectancy, lower rates of adults literacy, export tend to focus on primary products, manufactured goods, majority of exports go to advanced nations, most imports originate in advanced nations and trading among developing nations is minor. In order to help developing nations trade,  there are some institutions and policies exsiting. "Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme for LDC's"(by India) is one of them.


India's duty free scheme for LDC's came into effect on 13 August 2008. Under the scheme, import duties are being removed for 85 percent of all tariff lines. Implementation of scheme is gradual: tariffs are removed over a period of 5 years, with a 20 percent reduction in the level of applied tariff per year. for additional 9 percent of tariff lines, LDC's are granted preferential rates, with margins of preferences ranging from 10 to 100 percents. The remaining 6 percents of tariff lines are excluded from the scheme.①


All LDCs are eligible to participate in the scheme. In order to be a beneficiary, LDCs have to submit a letter of intent and must provide information on signatories of rules of origin certificates.①


India also accords perferential market access to LDC bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal under the South Asia Free Trade Arrangement. In addition, Lao PDR and Bangladesh receive LDC benefits under the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement.①


It's no doubt that, India succeeded in this policy. It is not only helps the developing nations for export but also helps India himself to get the cheap natural resources for its gem and jewelry industry. In addition, it also gets the crude oil and raw materials for industrial use from  many African countries.


①：The specific information from :http://esango.un.org/ldcportal/web/10447/-/preferential-market-access-india%E2%80%99s-duty-free-tariff-preference-scheme-for-ldcs?groupId=19799&redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fesango.un.org%2Fldcportal%2Ftrade%2Fism%3Bjsessionid%3DF52AAA4AF63A3B17E2660F5C489EDEBA%3Fp_p_id%3D175_INSTANCE_8WhpzgaCD1zM%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_col_id%3Dcolumn-6%26p_p_col_count%3D1

Higher import tarriff could do less help than harm

After reading the essay, we can get an answer about this question. For extremely high tariff, if the import doesn’t decline, tariff also isn’t enough for annual deficit. In fact, there are several causes which will happen except the import decline if we raise the tariff.

When we raise the tariff, first we will find that our tariff income increased and we can use this money to fill our deficit, Medicare and social security. “What a smart idea!” In contrast, some other counties will also raise their tariff for us soon and our export will decline. Meanwhile, some export industries will close; others will reduce their comparative advantage , raise their price and loss a lot of customers in other countries. The government has to use their tariff which we raised to pay for the increasing deficit and to help export industries. For domestic industries, when competitors have to raise their price, they will get more customers first. However, they will find their import resource price increased, so they raise their price. Some of them will think that why don’t raise their price to their foreign competitors level to earn more money. Therefore, all things price will go up and Government costs will go up. In the meantime, domestic industries loss their competitive power in competition of foreign industries. It's just a beginning.

In conclusion, if we raise our tariff to pay Medicare and social security, we will find the amount which also increased a lot. However, our industries and economy will get hurt.

 

“In one word, a non-starter.”