[lbo-talk] Free trade costs thousands of jobs...

Grant Lee grantlee at iinet.net.au
Tue Aug 5 23:48:10 PDT 2003


Apart from the other downsides of protectionism, some of the most striking examples of capitalist economic development --- e.g. Switzerland, Belgium, Hong Kong and Singapore --- have occurred under export-oriented, minimal tariff regimes. Australia has experienced average annual growth in the region of 3% for about 10 years, now, after abandoning a high tariff regime in the 1980s.

In fact, given the diminutive internal markets in such cases, (relative) "free trade" was the only kind of policy framework which was likely to result in successful capitalist development.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list