Free-Trade Hypocrites

Rich countries should stop blocking food and fiber exports from poor ones

For one of the most elegant propositions in the social sciences, free trade causes a lot of grief. The case for trade is simply put: if each economy produces what it does best and then trades with other economies for their goods and services, everyone's wealth goes up. Trade is about specialization. But the biggest threat to expanding trade today is that the rich industrial nations continue to block the food and fabric exports that are the natural specialty of poorer developing countries.

Trade always matters. But it matters now more than ever, with the global economy slumping and the U.S....

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