# Are there good reasons to be anti-free trade?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-good-reasons-to-be-anti-free-trade/743281>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 15, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-good-reasons-to-be-anti-free-trade/743281 "2016-01-15T21:59:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 132

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**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-good-reasons-to-be-anti-free-trade/743281/132 "2016-01-18T20:58:54Z")

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> [@BrightNShiny](#):
>
> I have a lot more than a few anecdotes, and I already told you that I’d post them if you wanted them. You “free-traders” just can’t help but lie through your teeth, can you?

Pardon me? What am I lying about? Besides which, am I posting in the pit without realising it?

Also, the plural of anecdote is not data. If you have data, you should post it, instead of just threatening that you will.

> [@](#):
>
> Lol. No I don’t. I can say I don’t want to import goods from a specific industry or company that is using slave labor. I say “Hey, there’s slave labor going on, and I want a mechanism to deal with this.” And then you lie and pretend I said that free trade is causing slave labor.

Who’s stopping anyone from not trading with someone they don’t want to trade with? If all you want is a mechanism to deal with slavery (such would generally come under domestic law and police), why do you want to bring it up in a thread about free trade? I agree that there ought to be a mechanism to deal with slavery. What does it have to do with trade? Why are you posting about it in this thread?

> [@](#):
>
> Did you actually do this analysis and determine that if we pushed for better working conditions for them that this would be a utilitarian negative? I think not. Just making stuff up and asserting it as fact. As I said earlier, all you’ve done is propose a model here. Crunch the data and show me that Bangladesh has to suffer if they get better labor standards.

I noted earlier “which result in the apparel industry in Bangladesh becoming uncompetitive” so it’s factored into my hypothetical. But beyond that, I can say for a fact (because the analysis has been done by many economists, read for e.g, Besley and Burgess) that India’s labour regulations have prevented growth, particularly in labour intensive sectors. It’s very plausible that this is why Bangladesh has a much larger apparel exporting sector (relative to its smaller size) than India, since otherwise the two countries are very similar. So harsher labour regulations in Bangladesh would likely reduce their comparative advantage strongly, and hurt them on the margins. I think opposing free trade\* or western countries insisting on better or worse regulations is just the perfect being the enemy of the good. Buy the stuff if you like it and it comes to you cheaper than you can make it. Let the countries and people providing it to you sort out their own issues. They’ll probably end up better for it than if you try and stuff your solutions down their throats.  
\*and before you accuse me of lying again, I’m not claiming this is what you’re doing, though I do wish you’d tell us what exactly your position is

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