Free Trade Petition
April 29, 2009 by David Archer
Filed under Announcements
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Join the Campaign for Free Trade
Dear Friends,
In cooperation with the International Policy Network and a worldwide group of think tanks, we are circulating this petition to combat recent moves toward harmful economic nationalism. I urge you to sign it.
Besides English, this petition is now available in over 30 languages. (Please see below). We are working toward an authentically worldwide effort on behalf of freedom of trade. Your help toward that end will be greatly appreciated.
If you would like more information, please contact my colleague David Archer.
Dr. Tom G. Palmer
Vice President for International Programs
General Director, Atlas Global Initiative for Free Trade, Peace, and Prosperity
Free Trade Is the Best Policy
The specter of protectionism is rising. It is always a dangerous and foolish policy, but it is especially dangerous at a time of economic crisis, when it threatens to damage the world economy. Protectionism’s peculiar premise is that national prosperity is increased when government grants monopoly power to domestic producers. As centuries of economic reasoning, historical experience, and empirical studies have repeatedly shown, that premise is dead wrong. Protectionism creates poverty, not prosperity. Protectionism doesn’t even “protect” domestic jobs or industries; it destroys them, by harming export industries and industries that rely on imports to make their goods. Raising the local prices of steel by “protecting” local steel companies just raises the cost of producing cars and the many other goods made with steel. Protectionism is a fool’s game.
But the fact that protectionism destroys wealth is not its worst consequence. Protectionism destroys peace. That is justification enough for all people of good will, all friends of civilization, to speak out loudly and forcefully against economic nationalism, an ideology of conflict, based on ignorance and carried into practice by protectionism.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, Montesquieu observed that “Peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who differ with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has an interest in buying, the other has an interest in selling; and thus their union is founded on their mutual necessities.”
Trade’s most valuable product is peace. Trade promotes peace, in part, by uniting different peoples in a common culture of commerce – a daily process of learning others’ languages, social norms, laws, expectations, wants, and talents.
Trade promotes peace by encouraging people to build bonds of mutually beneficial cooperation. Just as trade unites the economic interests of Paris and Lyon, of Boston and Seattle, of Calcutta and Mumbai, trade also unites the economic interests of Paris and Portland, of Boston and Berlin, of Calcutta and Copenhagen – of the peoples of all nations who trade with each other.
A great deal of rigorous empirical research supports the proposition that trade promotes peace.
Perhaps the most tragic example of what happens when that insight is ignored is World War II.
International trade collapsed by 70 percent between 1929 and 1932, in no small part because of America’s 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff and the retaliatory tariffs of other nations. Economist Martin Wolf notes that “this collapse in trade was a huge spur to the search for autarky and Lebensraum, most of all for Germany and Japan.”
The most ghastly and deadly wars in human history soon followed.
By reducing war, trade saves lives.
Trade saves lives also by increasing prosperity and extending it to more and more people. The evidence that freer trade promotes prosperity is simply overwhelming. Prosperity enables ordinary men and women to lead longer and healthier lives.
And with longer, healthier lives lived more peacefully, people integrated into the global economy have more time to enjoy the vast array of cultural experiences brought to them by free trade. Culture is enriched by contributions from around the world, made possible by free trade in goods and in ideas.
Without a doubt, free trade increases material prosperity. But its greatest gift is not easily measured with money. That greatest gift is lives that are freer, fuller, and far less likely to be scalded or destroyed by the atrocities of war.
Accordingly, we the undersigned join together in a plea to the governments of all nations to resist the calls of the short-sighted and the greedy to raise higher the barriers to trade. In addition, we call on them to tear down current protectionist barriers to free trade. To each government, we say: let your citizens enjoy not only the fruits of your own fields, factories, and genius, but also those of the entire globe. The rewards will be greater prosperity, richer lives, and enjoyment of the blessings of peace.
Click here to Sign the Petition
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Nikolay,
Thanks for your comment, we do have a Bulgarian translation, and you should see it now!
Best,
Cindy
Atlas
i think so,free trade is the best and all of us needs that in the feature.
Hello Penang, you can sign the petition here http://freedomtotrade.org/petition/sign
I clicked on the link, I got a jpg.
How am I going to sign on a document if that document is in jpg format????
Free trade is necessary for wealth, peace and freedom.
Nikolay,
Thanks for your comment, we do have a Bulgarian translation, and you should see it now!
Best,
Cindy
Atlas
Why the text of a petition is not in Bulgarian language?
More market, not socialism!
free trade ! from Argentina
Had it not been for trade, I wouldn’t have been able to write this sitting at my office on a laptop that is manufactured somewhere else. Allowing free trade has only helped human civilization move forward. Do the people sitting in ‘government positions’ ever wonder where they get the utilities they use in their everyday lives. For people who think that protectionism is good, Frederic Bastiat has already given an answer - ‘block the sun for it is competition for local candlemakers!’ Hopefully rationality will prevail and until then we need to keep trying!
Hay que impulsar al libre comercio exigiéndole a los gobiernos que liberen la entrada de productos importados. Es primordial decirle a la gente que los industriales nacionales no tienen el derecho de cerrarnos el mercado para que compremos sus productos usando la fuerza del gobierno.
El estado no tiene derechos que los ciudadanos no le hayan delegado; y el derecho de obligar al público a comprar sólo los productos propios no lo tiene nadie como individuo.
Free Trade is the best idea.I sign anything to make it real.Count with me for all the common causes in favour of all the individual freedoms,all the economical free market freedoms,all the abortion freedoms,and including all the heterosexual freedoms too.
All the best for all the Free Capitalistic Fighters!.
No puritanism,just free market.
Let’s fight for freedom.
Charlie Méndez-Thort
Il protezionismo è la premessa per imboccare la strada del nazionalismo economico . Esso costituisce il preludio per l’abbandono delle relazioni di scambio basate sulla pace .
Desde un país en el cual se considera que el LIBRE COMERCIO (mi ideal) es un PRIVILEGIO el cual utilizan los enemigos del pueblo para empobrecerlo
es el proteccionismo el que corta las oportunidades de crecimiento de los ciudadanos.
los empresarios buscan que los pobres mantengan sus empresas con subsidios estatales mientras ellos se hacen ricos….
http://republica-ld.blogspot.com/2009/03/la-crisis-del-capitalismo.html
Lo que nuestra sociedad ha olvidado es que el sistema de propiedad privada es la más importante garantía de la libertad. F.A.Hayek
free trade is the best
I am unaware of any successes from protectionism. Historically, it fails. It is trying the same failure over and over, expecting a different result each time.
Il protezionismo è un pericolo inutile.
free trade is the best way to succeed.
Worldwide free trade is the best and fair and we have all rights for it.
Free trade is the source of economic prosperity.
let us unite. let free traders emerge as formidable block through such initiatves. politicians fear unity and always side with such groups. this way only free trade will win.
Free trade is the best
El libre comercio es la condición de la prosperidad y el progreso de los pueblos.
A esta altura de la historia humana parecería que esto es innecesario, pero com estamos rodeados de engendros que creen saber que es lo que nosotros queremos o necesitamos entonces nos tenemos que cada tanto reunir con gente que piensa y actúa de acuerdo a ello, para ver si podemos influir sobre esta especie o subespecie humana que quiere esclavizarnos.
Saludos para todos y mi afecto de siempre. Ahora se debe luchar sin aflojar.
At its core, free trade represents the right of one individual in one country to trade freely with another individual in another country without their governments intervening - a right of intervention that no government can claim to have if it purports to support the rule of law and freedom of contract
Free trade needs to be practiced unilaterally. The idea that countries should first restrict trade, and then negotiate for some alleged reciprocal benefits is at the root of the problem of protectionism, as either way it legitimises the role of the state in trade. Countries don’t trade, people do. So states have no legitimate role in restricting or negotiating trade. We must seek to expose this fundamental flaw in the notion that countries should negotiate trade.
muy bien
From Argentina, free trade is necesary
Me parece justo este adjunto y me adhiero a el.
Every person who wants Freedom and Peace should sign this petition.
“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
~ Edmund Burke ~
Bugüne kadar alınan yolu geri çeviren,sistemin temel ilişkisini koparan,ticaretin yerine savaşı yeğleyen KORUMACILIK dır.Bütünlenmekte olan dünyayı,yeniden parçalayan bu hastalığı(AİDS gibi) bulaştıran anlayışsızlık açıkca teşhis ve teşhir edilmedikce ve bütünleşmenin sorunları gobal yaklaşımlarla çözülmedikce yıkım ve kayıplar gene çok büyük olacak.Ama aklımız başımıza gelene kadar bu böyle olacak.
As Bastiat warns us, “if goods do not cross borders, armies will.” Free trade and Peace!
el libre comercio es la base de todas las libertades