Dexter wrote:It would be quite unusual for a critic of free trade to only call for tariffs in poor countries.

Hey. I'm a lefty. That's what we do. Have another look at Haigt

I'm not an economist but I am interested in any realistic strategies that will encourage industrial development in developing countries.
Ha-Joon Chang in his book "Bad Samaritans", shows how this has been done in many countries including his native South Korea and how it can be accomplished in other developing countries.

Dexter wrote:Exactly why you need free trade. Tariffs and subsidies are a way for powerful corporate interests to block competition.

I don't follow this. Has free-trade then occurred over the objection of 'powerful corporate interests?" This is the item where their interests are not catered to... preposterous! WalMart and Nike have been harmed by free trade? These immigrant corporations have been only too happy to use cheap labor to make their cheap products.

Developing countries don't need protection, they are better off when companies do the "evil" outsourcing and hire their workers. That raises wages throughout the country. Every developed country in history has first gone through low-skill industrialization and then moved up the skill ladder while wages and productivity both increase. Every single one.

It's not about developing countries it's about developed countries. Somone who makes nothing is indeed better off (presumably anyway) by making $2 an hour or a day or a year. After all they used to have nothing and now they have cake.