Guy Stenhouse: We must fight for free trade. Our wealth depends on it
There are certain things which are just truths. Not my truths or your truths or variations of the truth but plain and simple clear-cut truth. Gravity is one, the sun rising in the east is another. You cannot change these types of truths however much you might want to.
In economics, which is a bit less of a science than say physics or chemistry, there are fewer absolute truths but there are some.
One of those truths is that free trade is a good thing for the prosperity of the world. Enabling goods to be made where it makes sense to do so and then sending them to where they are wanted without imposing unnecessary costs on them is good news for the wealth of those in the country where they are made as well as where they are consumed.
Free trade keeps the cost of products down in more developed countries enabling the same income to buy more than it otherwise could.
More importantly, in the long run free trade spreads prosperity from the developed world to less developed nations. Jobs are created where previously there were none. Those jobs support families and create more purchasing power which creates other jobs and an upward spiral of demand which allows developing countries to become developed ones.........
© Herald Scotland
