Comments on: More Rent Seeking — National Style http://www.showmedaily.org/2010/03/more-rent-seeking-national.html Advancing liberty with responsibility by promoting market solutions for Missouri public policy Thu, 24 May 2012 12:24:42 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Mike http://www.showmedaily.org/2010/03/more-rent-seeking-national.html/comment-page-1#comment-5583 Mike Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:22:02 +0000 http://www.showmedaily.org/?p=15167#comment-5583 EU countries, for instance, do not require Visas, nor would countries like Australia. Assessing some type of non-Visa fee would simply run the risk of these costs being passed along to US citizens travelling to these countries. If you don't believe there is direct reciprocity, look at Brazil, which increased the fee for US citizens obtaining a Visa to 4-5x more than any other country's visitors immediately after we required Brazilians to get Visas to the US. It just becomes a vicious circle. The only good thing, if you can call it that, is that if this fee is charged at the time of ticket purchase it is simply an economic cost issue, and doesn't include incremental "soft" costs for actually obtaining a Visa to travel, which if you have never done so is not a fun experience. As someone living abroad I can assure you that many citizens of EU countries go out of their way NOT to travel to the US these days as the hassle of our entry & exit process has become quite burdensome and frankly, insulting to many of them. My company has a stated preference for not holding global gatherings in the US for this reason. I find myself apologizing for their treatment by the US quite often, which is a shame. EU countries, for instance, do not require Visas, nor would countries like Australia. Assessing some type of non-Visa fee would simply run the risk of these costs being passed along to US citizens travelling to these countries. If you don’t believe there is direct reciprocity, look at Brazil, which increased the fee for US citizens obtaining a Visa to 4-5x more than any other country’s visitors immediately after we required Brazilians to get Visas to the US. It just becomes a vicious circle.

The only good thing, if you can call it that, is that if this fee is charged at the time of ticket purchase it is simply an economic cost issue, and doesn’t include incremental “soft” costs for actually obtaining a Visa to travel, which if you have never done so is not a fun experience.

As someone living abroad I can assure you that many citizens of EU countries go out of their way NOT to travel to the US these days as the hassle of our entry & exit process has become quite burdensome and frankly, insulting to many of them. My company has a stated preference for not holding global gatherings in the US for this reason. I find myself apologizing for their treatment by the US quite often, which is a shame.

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