What would you do in this situation? (if you were president)

[Barnabas]

Imagine 2 countries X and Y divided by a river which is the fronteer.

A foreign company comes to Y and builds a factory which pollutes that river.

How would you as president of X react to it?

Some extra info: Y is a small country and they cant say no to that foreign investment, since it is very important for their economy. it is one of those cases in which a single investment can increase the gdp of a country by 20%

X is much bigger, powerful and wealthier than Y, Y has a history of being largely economically dependant on X.

[ZEE]

barnabas sighting

and it would depend on my relations with the foreign company/country.

[LordShiva]

I would make teh company pay me a big bribe

[snoopy369]

It depends on the pollution. If it is an unacceptable pollution level, I would initially object, and if my objections were not taken into consideration, I would go to the world court. If that didn't work, I'd probably try economic tariffs as much as is possible.

If I were the actual president, it's quite possible I'd go the tariff route first, unless I was very confident the world court would support me.

My demands would be that the pollution not exceed normal acceptable levels in that river; and that the company make efforts to clean the pollution up within reason.

[VetLegion]

Paraguay and Brasil? Uruguay and Argentina? Show your cards!

Anyway, it's a typical problem of externalities. The polluter should be forced to pay the full costs of his operation, meaning not only raw materials but also expenses incurred by those downstream because of the extra pollution.

Factories which aren't profitable when all costs are considered shouldn't operate.

The president of the big country should threaten genocide in order to get the project to stop.

[snoopy369]

I think Barnabas is trying to control for some of that, by asking what you would do as president of X (realistically) rather than what "should" happen. Genocide ain't an option

What I think should happen is exactly what you do though (they should be required to limit their pollution to reasonable levels). The problem here is that they likely chose this country because of their lax laws on the matter...

[VetLegion]

If we're talking Paraguay genocide is an option, they're used to it

It's probably about that soy processing thing in Paraguay. I stand by what I said.

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Paraguay and Brasil? Uruguay and Argentina? Show your cards!

Anyway, it's a typical problem of externalities. The polluter should be forced to pay the full costs of his operation, meaning not only raw materials but also expenses incurred by those downstream because of the extra pollution.

Factories which aren't profitable when all costs are considered shouldn't operate.

The president of the big country should threaten genocide in order to get the project to stop.

Argentina and Uruguay, the company is the finnish Botnia, the factory a paper pulp factory.


Today the company said : If the wind is strong, a scent like the one of "boiled cauliflower" may be felt in neighbouring cities. They said it should stop in a few days, when they get all their filters working, but, who knows.


What makes this issue controversial is that the cities on the argentine side of the river live of tourism.
Anyway, the factory started working a few days ago, and the level of pollution is still not clear

[Krill]

Prove that the paper mill will cause pollution first is what I'd do...

[SlowwHand]

Blast them. They're taking up needed space that could be utilized for parking.

[VetLegion]

A FINNISH COMPANY?!

That's terrible. Finland was built on the labour of enslaved Russians, it is well known. That they are now exploiting the third world is sad but to be expected from such people

[Lord Avalon]

Send spies to sabotage the factory?

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon
Send spies to sabotage the factory?

Even bettter, send union reps.

[LordShiva]

Demand that teh pollution stay in country Y's half of teh river

[Barnabas]

Forget Finland, it is still not known if the factory will pollute heavily or not. They say it has the latest newest most advanced technology.


Thats why I used X and Y