Give Them Free Trade

Tim Worstall, 'Let the Capitalists In', writes at TCS:

...we should have free trade. No, not fair trade, not managed trade, not free trade except for farmers and others that our politicians like, but simple and pure free trade. We all know the benefits of the division of labor, the more efficient uses of resources, the joys of comparative advantage playing out; these things will make the poor richer just as they will make us so. We have mere days ago got rid of the Multi-Fiber Agreements which have done so much to stop the poor countries exploiting their advantages in textile production. We need to move on, to dismantle the absurd systems of farm protection in the EU, US and Japan...

Of all the complaints made of the West, this I agree with: the West hurts the poor countries by not allowing free trade. Free trade is mutually beneficial. The poor countries do have advantages in certain fields but markets in the West are denied to them. These poor people can increase their wealth by a lot, in relative terms, by simply trading with us. Tim Worstall is right. By the way, the last line in his article is beautiful.