Bush Wrong at UN on Benefits of Free Trade

Filed under: General — shadow @ 11:00 am

Published on Friday, September 28, 2007 by The Progressive

by Amitabh Pal

In a little-noticed portion of his speech to the United Nations on September 25, President Bush repeated a favorite hymn of his.

In the long run, the best way to lift people out of poverty is through trade and investment, Bush said. During the 1990s, developing nations that significantly lowered tariffs saw their per capita income grow about three times faster than other developing countries. Open markets ignite growth, encourage investment, increase transparency, strengthen the rule of law, and help countries help themselves.

As in so many of his other pronouncements, he s wrong.

In the past few decades, as the gospel of free trade has spread, growth in the developing world has actually slipped. Mark Weisbrot, Dean Baker, and David Resnick of the Center for Economic Policy and Research (an organization that does great work in demolishing conventional shibboleths) have done research that reveals quite the opposite of what Bush contends. Full Story