Re: Ashish' post dated November 21 ---One version of free trade

[Barun Mitra <liberty@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>]

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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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IPI_Marker

At 01:49 AM 11/29/2001 -0800, you wrote:
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>Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>IPI_Marker
>
>"Free trade" does not do good for all people.Some
>people are always going to get hit, very badly- the
>weak.

Free Trade is win-win. Otherwise the parties will not trade voluntarily.

And that is the reason why unilateral free trade is best. Since that
would
allow us to maximise the benefits at the cost of the inefficient and the

subsidised.

Of course some people will get hit. Those who try to sell shoddy
products
and services should not be protected. These are the people who have been

harming the weak and the poor. Free trade allows the poor to escape such

local tyrants.

I would like to educate my self on the history of trade. Could any one
provide an example of free trade harming the poor any where in the
world?
The little evidence I have shows that India had 1.7% of world trade in
1950, and we then adopted a trade and import restrictive policies. By
1990s, our share of world trade had fallen to about 0.7% of world trade.

And perhaps coincidentally, we have stayed at the bottom of the economic

ladder.

Barun

>As a student of history, I haven't come across any
>reference - where the weak nation/people benefitted
>from "free trade".


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