UN General Assembly
2013

in those efforts. We also give strong support to the areas of democracy, human rights and freedom from violence. Sweden is one of biggest donors to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. We are trying to help out though humanitarian assistance for the crisis in Syria and by receiving refugees. This year alone we have welcomed 16,000 Syrians to Sweden. Let me mention a third area that we need to focus on in the post-2015 development agenda, namely, trade and competition. Protectionism is very expensive. It raises prices and lowers standards of living. Let me illustrate this by a striking example. According to the World Trade Organization, consumers and Governments in rich countries pay $350 billion per year supporting agriculture. That is enough to fly their 41 million dairy cows first class around the world. Allow me to mention some other, maybe more down- to-earth, examples. When competition was introduced for mobile phone companies in some countries, the cost of calls fell by 30 to 50 per cent. Studies show that