When free trade fails to deliver
This is my latest article, this one in The University Bookman, Russell Kirk”s journal.
http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/when-free-trade-is-not-fair-exchange/
My view on free trade has always been that it is a good thing between countries on comparable socio-economic levels which play by the same rules – such as within the EU, between European countries and North America, etc. The problems arise when you open your markets to another country which does not open its markets to you in return – or abuses your goodwill and fair-dealing to engage in dubious practices. Free movement of capital, technology and labour are also problematic for all kinds of reasons, for example when labour is much cheaper overseas and Western companies consequently outsource everything there, leaving domestic workers jobless and communities dying – and running the risk of losing essential skills. It is somewhat ironic that people who fervently defend political sovereignty seem perfectly relaxed about potentially losing their economic sovereignty. It is only relatively recently that Conservatism came to mean mere Manchester liberalism. Derek Turner, 20 June 2011