THE DISADVANTAGES OF NATIONAL TRADE BARRIERS AND RESTRICTIONS

It appears that a worldwide, borderless, capitalist economy, wherein trade, investment, and other commercial activity are able to function unfettered by national borders, would produce benefit to all of mankind.

The world, as we now know it, is a world of borders; and furthermore, by reason thereof, a world of barriers.  We are not only separated and bound by political boundaries; we are also divided by economic "femces," that needlessly separate us, and hinder our progress.

It is a recently oft-cited fact that the twenty-first century is a period during which many economic decisions are founded upon global bases.  Capital markets have become worldwide; and investments flow to the regions that are "transparent" (i.e., open) to the international financial commumnity.

The "wealth-gathering" regions of our world are not neatly confined within certain politically defined boundaries.  They exist because they happen to be "wealth-gathering" by their nature, composition, resources, and personality.  Therefore, they lie at times within, and sometimes across, national boundaries.  Conversely, the typical nation-state is far from uniform in its characteristics and composition.  It is frequently a combination of a number of different regions, having vastly different resources, capabilities, and requirements.

In order to thrive to their fullest, these regions need to possess autonomy to function without the stricture of political constraints.  Such constraints usually take the form of unnecessary or redundant governmental regulation, control, and protectionist imposts.  In fact, for this reason, the knowledge-intensive pioneer companies that are today springing up in our modern world are gravitating toward friendlier environs, as regards regulation, such as offered by countries like Malaysia and Singapore.

In a nutshell, protectionism, and the regulations and prohibitions that it gives rise to, are hostile toward, and destructive of, a global atmosphere, within which the entire world may derive benefit from the fruits that are the product of the ingenuity and accomplishments of all of mankind.

It is strange but apparently true that once the government of a place opens itself up to the global system and sheds needless protectionism, prosperity seems to magically follow.  It is for this reason that globalization has apparently significantly raised standards of living across the globe, in countries from China, Korea, and Malaysia to Argentina and Brazil.

There was a time when production, purchase, and sale of consumer goods were principally carried on "at home"  that is, within a local region.  But, as can be readily recognized, that has all changed; and a sizeable portion of the economies of the United States and most other nations depends upon trade.  For example, foreign trade represented only thirteen percent of the United States' gross domestic product in 1970; but, by the turn of the twenty-first century, it had risen to about thirty percent.

The fact that trade-flows in today's world continue to be determined by, and continue to be a function of, national boundaries constitutes a defect within, and an impediment to, the world's economic well-being.  Trade and economics ought not be--althoughthey continue to be--regarded as spheres and exponents of respective nations' foreign policy.  A result, as well as a proof, of this lies in the fact that, today, disputes over trade barriers are the subject of more international concern than are the many and strenuous disputes over border lines.

As a primary principle, it should be realized that the success of an industry in a particular region is not determineed by the political boundaries within which said industry, or region, happens to be contained.  Rather, it is a result of the resources within that industry or region, and the efforts and activities of certain individuals or groups of people who constitute or populate it.  As Kenichi Ohmae, a well-known and knowledgeable author of numerous works on business and finance, characterizes it in his The End of the Nation-State, "economic activity in today's borderless world follows ...information-driven efforts to participate in the global economy." 

Thus, excellence of an industry, or a group of people within a certain place, should not be able to be resorted to as a sword or a shield in international affairs--to the detrimant of the industries and/or the consumers who depend upon them.

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