Probably not, but he did make the same point about subsidizing US ethanol production in last night’s presidential debate that I made in my piece here yesterday. He also said “I support buying the ethanol from Brazil made from sugar-cane” which has hugely excited the Brazilian media – which is fairly staunchly pro-Obama in all other respects.

Without wanting to belabour my point from yesterday, Obama’s position on this is part of the sloppy thinking on the left which often results in them getting foreign policy so wrong. There is a knee-jerk hostility to free trade on much of the left and, time and again, it leads them to take positions, such as trying to insert “human rights clauses” into trade agreements, which can actually do enormous harm to the people that they are trying to help.

I will leave the last word on US-subsidized ethanol to Paul Krugman. “Bad for the economy, bad for consumers, bad for the planet — what’s not to love?”

About the author
Conor Foley is a regular contributor and humanitarian aid worker who has worked for a variety of organisations including Liberty, Amnesty International and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He currently lives and works in Brazil and is a research fellow at the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham. His books include Combating Torture: a manual for judges and prosecutors and A Guide to Property Law in Afghanistan. Also at: Guardian CIF
· Other posts by Conor Foley

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