Free Trade Trumps All
By Ocean on Jun 11, 2008 in Articles of Interest, Featured
Ronald Bailey from Reason Magazine writes about the 2008 Copenhagen Consensus and highlights a speech by Kym Anderson from the University of Adelaide had to say about trade and migration.
An interesting comparison: Industrialized countries gave $104 Billion to developing countries in 2006. If trade were fully liberalized these developing countries would receive $86 Billion. Not as much, but consider that at the same time industrialized countries would be receiving around $200 Billion in gains. Unlike aid, trade is never zero-sum.
This, and other interesting points can be found in the article.
Utility:
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In the long run, though, trade creates a more profitable and more sustainable model world wide.
Rebecca | Jun 11, 2008 | Reply
My sentiments exactly.
Unfortunately, there are times when the incentive to promote free global trade (ie ‘globalization’) is not fully realized thus making people go against it.
Jason | Jun 11, 2008 | Reply
Well the responsibility is all around too. It is not enough to say “Free Trade will pay off in the long run so just bear with us here”. Things sometimes get worse before they get better, so a full plan would include the cushioning for when those things get worse.
Somehow you need to compensate for the immediate disatvantages of less money or job loss, which hit less people than most think, but do still occur.
Rebecca | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
This is true. Some people will fair worse with Free Trade. For this retraining and career development programs can and many times should be developed for the short term readjustment.
On the other hand sometimes new jobs are refused because of pay cuts or relocations that come with them. If the skills a worker has become obsolete, these are some of the issues they’ll have to deal with. While the horse and buggy manufacturer might have been good at his job, times change and new jobs need to be sought out.
At the end of the day, however, free trade WITH a readjustment/Career development program is still more beneficial all around than protectionism.
Ocean | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
Yes exactly - the point is to avoid people faring worse as much as possible. There also needs to be a full understanding of the advantages of re-adjusting now for long term benefits at the personal level too. One person does not need to lose out so that other people can benefit.
Rebecca | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
“One person does not need to lose out so that other people can benefit.”
Could you be more specific? This happens all the time, regrettable as it may be.
Ocean | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
Yes it was a bit vague sorry. What I meant was that the perception, to the “losing” team is that: “I have to lose my job so someone in India can take it?” Hardly seems right when put like that.
But it is not the case, with - as you say - re-training and replacement programs in place, you can in fact improve your skills, learn new ones and make a change.
Rebecca | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply