From Claire Melamed
Sir: Mark Steyn accuses Christian Aid of being comprised of ‘condescending neoimperialists’ on the basis of some vague assertions, a bit of anecdotal evidence and some slightly bizarre predictions. What’s lacking is an understanding of how the world really works.
For rich and well-educated professionals who can travel the world taking advantage of new opportunities, Christian Aid’s campaign for trade justice might look like an irrelevance. Lucky them. Half the world’s population don’t have the same choices. Reality for them is falling incomes, no jobs to go to, and governments who can’t afford to bail them out when things get difficult. Christian Aid wants the new opportunities to be open to everybody, and, for the poorest, history shows that trade justice — and most certainly not free trade – is the only way out of poverty.
China and India became the economic powerhouses they are today on the basis of exactly the sort of policies Christian Aid says all countries should have the freedom to adopt. Where did all the highly educated Chinese and Indians, who Mark Steyn says are stealing accountancy jobs from the USA, come from? From states that used tax revenues and invested in education.
The computer industry is a prime example of the success of ‘trade justice’. How did countries like Japan and South Korea build up the electronics industries Mark Steyn celebrates? By governments intervening in the economy. South Korean electronics companies were protected from competition and got generous subsidies in their early stages. In Taiwan, rates of protection reached 55 per cent in the 1970s.
Trade justice is not wishful thinking by woolly liberals. It’s the only strategy that has ever succeeded in driving innovation, boosting productivity and reducing poverty. Claire Melamed
Christian Aid, London SE1
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