Protectionism vs Human Rights

Here’s an extract:

Free trade isn’t a battle that countries (or states) win or lose. It is a human right – the liberty to engage in voluntary transactions that leave both participants better off. If John wants to sell something that Mary wants to buy, it should make no difference to the lawfulness of their exchange whether they are residents of different neighborhoods, different states, or different nations.

“Trade barriers,’’ writes the Cato Institute’s Dan Griswold in “Mad About Trade,’’an astute and absorbing new book, “rob people of the rightful fruits of their own labor, distributing the spoils to other people with no moral claim to the confiscated wealth other than political power.’’

 

Protectionism, an old delusion, enriches the few at the expense of the many. The blessings of free trade, by contrast, uplift all of us – even the departing senator from North Dakota, whether he knows it or not.