It isn’t about “Free Trade”. It’s about “Fair Trade”.
“It isn’t about “Free Trade”. It’s about “Fair Trade”.”
That’s the mantra union protectionism. If you want to look at the moral aspect, the only way third world countries can pull themselves up is through free trade. Aid and unrepayable loans certainly don’t do the job. In every case, once a country start doing a bit better, through trade, their pay and living conditions improve, to the point of reaching, or at least approaching, parity. Japan in the supreme example. Once, “Japanese” was synonymous with “cheap” but now their products are highly valued and often more expensive. China is an excellent recent example of a country where living standards (and prices) are starting to rise. And, in the meantime, competition ensures that consumers are not held captive by monopolies and are not forced to pay exorbitant prices for inefficient products which are produced only because of trade barriers, or worse, by using taxpayers’ money to encourage production of things nobody wants (think of the European butter mountains). In the long term, this is both ineffective and unsustainable.
Dazzle me, Glenn.