29/11/2004 1:40:36 pm
One Small Step for a Man... From the 1st of January, all quotas restricting trade with clothes and textiles will be abolished. Cheap clothes of good quality will be easier to import from, for example, China and India. The OECD calculates that a normal European family with two children will save some 250 euro a year from the lower prices. This deal in the WTO is a good step. It shows the benefits from free trade. Of course some people that now manufacture the same kind of clothes but to a higher price in the EU and the US will lose their jobs. And that process is always difficult for those persons. But nobody wants to pay 100 000 euro for a car if it is possible to pay 10 000. Nobody wants to pay 1000 euro for a pair of trousers if one can pay 100. And that is what it is all about. Free trade increases competition, which increases creativity and hence quality - and reduces price. This is how the world develops and gets better, step by step. Lower prices are just as important for living standards as higher wages.