I buy goods from poorer countries - 7 comments
Via Owen. They may be evil incarnate, but the Adam Smith Institute are giving away free Free Trade wristbands.
Email them with a mailing address to receive your own. I've ordered one, even if they do look like something that belongs deep within the bowels of your vacuum cleaner. Why?
The trade which can lift peoples out of poverty is assailed from many directions. A motley assortment of protectionists and anti-capitalists use every argument they can lay their hands on to protect their interests. From the CAP to 'food miles,' the effect is to deny poorer people the chance to gain wealth by selling us what they produce. Those who embrace free trade as an instrument of good can now express their support for poorer peoples by proclaiming an intention to buy their produce.
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7 comments so far...
"They may be evil incarnate" - oh come now, you flatter the Adam Smith Institute! They're just a bunch of sad old Reaganites and Thatcherites who clearly haven't ever read very much that Adam Smith wrote (eg about state provision of infrastructure or about paying decent wages) but who aren't too proud to pinch his name for their funny little club!
^ ditto
http://www.heady.co.uk/rm/asmithbands.jpg
excuse the rough photoshopping...
Classy bit of work, BBD', but that's just economics/human nature.
I can't tell if people did/didn't get the irony of the 'evil' statement, but as far as I'm concerned, the ASI make - to me - a very sensible point, one cited by economists I respect, which deeply irritates the people I'm happy to deeply irritate, and one that increases wealth and not (merely) hot air. Do what works, not what fits the idological pattern. Free Trade is also a classic Labour policy.
Don't get taken in by the ASI. They want free trade alright, but they're more interested in the exploitation of the developing world's markets than the opening up of ours.
Fair trade is a different thing altogether - It would be fair to open up our markets and let developing countries be protectionist for a while to protect vulnerable markets or those with a disproportionate share of that nation's economy.
ASI are a bunch of imperialists who backed the wrong horse for the Tory leadership and are now scrabbling to entrench themselves in Team Cameron. (In my ever-so-humble opinion)
Don't worry, I won't be signing up to the ASI.
The problem with 'fair trade' is that all trade barriers reduce wealth in the long-term. Of course - in the short-term - the only barriers we ought to even consider tolerating are those of the developing countries, but they too should go in due course.
Ok. Considering that in most African countries over 50% of people work the soil (it varies, but can go above 80%), would destroying EU trade tarifs work?
First, unless developing countries can protect themselves against the influx of foreign capital, very few on the ground are likely to benefit from globalised agriculture. (Investment in other sectors would be daft considering the significantly better infrastructure in other low-cost countries such as China.) Business models won't keep people on, they'll mechanise the farms and lay people off. Who can't exactly go and get a job in Tesco Metro, or work in a call centre.
And if this happens, to little benefit to those on the ground, the EU farming industry will collapse. Ok in theory, but some of us *do* care about food miles and the stewardship of our land.
So - exporting food from the poor at scant benefit to them whilst damaging the environment in its transit does not, to me, seem the panacea some (including Make Poverty History) make it out to be.
No country (barring the scandalously unequal oil-rich nations in the Middle East) has ever developed sustainably without first having a self-sufficient agricultural base. Imposing western-style rationalisation and investment before the development of a local entrepreneurial class will hurt the poor and destroy the planet.
Localised community-based development projects seem more likely to deliver than broad-stroke trade reforms that will probably benefit developing countries with a relatively established entrepreneurial class (Brazil, India).
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