Eduardo Porter of The Washington Post writes on the benefits of global trade.
- Free trade has come under scrutiny lately with some people claiming that is exasperating climate change, when in fact quite the opposite is true.
- Free trade allows countries to specialize which leads to more energy-efficient and less carbon-intensive products.
- Trade has also lifted billions of people out of poverty and accelerated economic progress, which is critical to lowering emissions and bettering human life.
- Rather than embracing protectionism, policy makers should turn to free trade.
“Most importantly, trade, in the climate change era, allows economies with relatively clean sources of energy to specialize in energy-intensive goods and services. It is essential both to shift the footprint of global production to where things can be made at the least cost to the environment and to allow the dirtier producers in the developing world to acquire technologies — mostly originated in richer nations — that will enable them to reduce their emissions, too.”
Read the full article here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
