Monday
(0)This week is the "Global Week of Action for Trade Justice". Not the best week for it in the UK given the General Election campaign. Apparently there are going to be thousands of people out on the streets of Westminster throughout the night on Friday doing a candelnight vigil against free trade (Christian Aid reckons that the Common Agricultural Policy is an example of free trade).
Not liking the debate to be one-sided, I have written a new Globalisation Institute report called Trade Justice or Free Trade?. It argues that supporters of trade justice are confused and mistaken. Instead of encouraging poor countries to keep their high tariffs, these tariffs should be lowered. The report points to how, in India, protectionism merely enabled the rich to profit at the expense of the poor. The report says that poor Chinese have as much right to sell textiles on the world markets and that the anti-China stance of Christian Aid is unfair. Finally, the report is critical of the way that the church - despite a diversity of views about Christian Economics - presents a one-sided approach to economic issues.
well done and good for you, alex. nurse verity will be along shortly to polish your dirty.
Posted by martin at April 11, 2005 03:04 PM
The pdf seemed like a good article to me. It will prove most interesting to show to Christain acquaintances who were offended (but could not tell me why) by this.
What I'd like to know is - why is the view that trade is a zero-sum exercise that involves the "exploitation" of one party by another, to one party's disadvantage, so widespread?
Posted by Milo Thurston at April 11, 2005 03:28 PM
Thanks, Mr Thurston. I really enjoyed that link.
Alex, please continue to push this. Did you see the "Free trade is slavery" advert for Christian Aid in the Guardian the other day? I commented here: Objectively pro-starvation.
May I suggest that you publish your report in html as soon as possible? The trouble with PDF is that some people don't follow the link because the wait is tedious. May I further suggest that you write a one page summary of basic facts, written in non-technical language, probably in question and answer form.
I'm not saying that your report was overly technical or over-long. Quite the contrary: you have a knack for explaining. But the audience that must be reached in this case is, almost by definition, completely ignorant of economic affairs.
Likewise, can any readers recommend brief user-friendly pieces of writing on the reasons why the protectionist strategy for the developing world has already cost many lives and is likely to cost more?
Posted by Natalie Solent at April 11, 2005 05:28 PM
On a more detailed reading of your report, I see you did see the advert I mentioned, as you quoted from it.
Another reason for preferring html to pdf is to make it easy for bloggers to quote you.
Sorry to go on about this. It's only because I think your message is so important.
Posted by Natalie Solent at April 11, 2005 06:04 PM
Alex, I second Natalie's point and good for you for doing this. These creieps really are a joke. Christian Aid has been an offender in running this sort of mercantilist rubbish for years.
In the light of the fact that Henry Hazlitt's superb volume, Economics in One Lesson, is now available online, perhaps someone should send the url to the CA types in the hope, however, naive, that they learn something.
Keep up the good work mate.
Posted by Johnathan Pearce at April 11, 2005 06:15 PM
Free Trade is slavery??????
All other forms of trade are infringements on freedom. Tariffs make us slaves, not trade.
By the way, did you see the article in the economist that claims that trade is what gave us an advantage over Neanderthals?
Posted by EU Serf at April 11, 2005 07:22 PM
Natalie - I think Bastiat explained it pretty well. I cant find the direct quote, but when explaining free trade he once pointed out that there is nothing very clever about tipping boulders into your own harbours just because your neighbours have rocky and inaccessible coastlines that make it hard for your own ships to dock
Posted by Christopher Price at April 11, 2005 09:36 PM
Yesterday at the church, two of the members had organised a 'Trade Justice' seminar (in place of sunday school) for the kids/teenagers. I asked one of them afterward exactly what he objected to in free trade, to which he seemed to emit a quiet gurgling of platitudinous-sounding bubbles, rather like bleech disappearing down the sink the wrong way round...
Then again maybe I should see a doctor.
Posted by mike at April 11, 2005 09:45 PM
I usually begin any free trade discussion by pointing to the United States Constitution which mandates completely free trade between the sovereign states. The result: the most powerful economic engine in the world - far more powerful than most imagine.
Posted by Roy Lofquist at April 12, 2005 01:43 AM
Real trade justice means that I can do my shopping anywhere in the world I want.
Posted by Alan K. Henderson at April 12, 2005 11:14 AM
"Free trade is slavery"
Funny, I thought freedom was slavery; just as war is peace and ignorance is strength.
Posted by Steve P at April 12, 2005 10:20 PM
