The truth about protectionism

Free Trade vs. Protectionism             Back to NCPA Debate Home Page

The Truth about Protectionism by Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariy Poor countries are the worst offenders when it comes to obstructing trade. Financial Times; Mar 30, 2001 It is widely acknowledged that the developed world could do more to open up its economies to trade. Its failure to dismantle fully tariff barriers has hurt its economies as well as those of poor countries. The West should match their rhetoric with concrete action. But the complaints of rich-country protectionism from the developing world - not to mention the criticisms of anti-free-trade pressure groups - has distorted the debate. In particular, four fallacies threaten the formation of good trade policy in the poorest countries. ... In fact, poor countries continue to have higher trade barriers than rich countries. For manufactured goods, for example, rich-country tariffs are 8 per cent on average, compared with 21 per cent for the poor countries. Click here for link to full article on Financial Times web site.