Pollution is caused by people who are too careless or stupid to not cause it -- in general, in industry and manufacturing the less pollution an enterprise creates the more efficient and market-adapting it is. In the US our regulators rely on micro-managing and over-specifying solutions and limitations in such a way as to enable and even force bad management in the regulated businesses. That cost -- of poor regulation style -- imnho, overwhlems the price advantage 3rd world slavers get on wages and natural resource exploitation.
Still, as we practise it now, free trade DOES greatly enable and contribute to serious pollution in those slaver states.
"Poverty" will always be with us -- but the real issue is that "free trade" encourages states with immature non-free governments to become slaver states. It may be that this is the proper prograssion of states, but even if so, intelligent caring peoples in the mature, free states such as ours can and should take steps to ameliorate it. And ...
Most importantly we must protect our own free state. From what? Not from direct economic harm for economically who wouldn't, and all should, welcome lower prices on goods. Even from slavers. Even lost jobs are not the harm, for with our freedom and liberty we easily can best the production costs of slavers, should we try. And there's the rubstone, there's the true risk, the ever-present danger. There is a natural effect of dealing with slaver states that keeps us, our leaders and business executives, from trying. That blocks our industry's great advantages -- massive, almost unbeatable advantages -- our a free people, of economic liberty.
What is that danger, that strong poison? It is the unavoidable corrupting influence of the slavers, of dealing with the slaver states. That corruption is in direct and indirect forms. Direct bribes and "business benefits", indirect from our business leaders coming to take on the attitude that even we free men are like slaves, and the mismanagement there resultant. Both direct and indirect forms are strong poisons, unavoidable when slaver states and slavers are dealt with.
But slave states must be traded with! I wholeheartedly agree. How can it be done? Can it be done?
It can be done, it must be done. There is a simple and historically proven solution that provides protection from the poisons of trade with slavers.
Smuggling. We must allow for extra-legal smuggling.
The fines and financial penalities extracted from smugglers are better than tarrifs in dealing with slave states. And we can't completely prevent trade. Too forceful a ban corrupts the police and customs agents enforcing it.
Legal free trade with slavers corrupts our political class and our business leaders. Forceful trade bans corrupt our police. Only allowing for smuggling works.
Banning trade in products that are produced in slaver states while keeping the enforcement against smuggling at a low to low-moderate level serves both to minimize the poisons of corruption resultant from dealing with slaver states, while meeting the society building social requirement to deal with them.
A strong and lasting nation is made up of a great body of law-abiding people, in which there are always a number of outlaws, law breakers. For the government tand teh nation to long survive it is needed to keep the law-breakers out of the law making and enforcement.
That means -- as being a nation rich and ready to spend those riches -- allowing for a healthy but illegal industry of smuggling.