Good show on Trade

Here's a good episode of The Connection on NPR on trade, as CAFTA is pending. Listen out in particular for Otton Solis, economist, presidential candidate in Costa Rica, and a very articulate voice again CAFTA.

The econ-buff in me understands that free trade creates wealth as surely as water runs downhill. I understand all the textboox examples of how trade makes both parties better off. Yet I still feel a lot of anxiety at the downsides of trade -- of dislocation, of corporations bigfooting small producers out of their market, environmental externalities. Solis makes a compelling case that CAFTA is not a good choice for Costa Rica. I wonder what will happen now.

I am Otton Solis. I sound quite hot on the radio. In photographs, not quite so much