UN General Assembly
1984

101. We will be forgiven, therefore, if in the face of all this we are a little cynical about the principles of free trade which they have been preaching and about the interest of their labour unions in the welfare of our workers. Therefore I say this. Do not merely preach free trade, practise it. Do not be so presumptuous as to think that you know better than our labour leaders how to look after the interests of our workers. We can compete with you freely and fairly in certain areas. These are usually those of low- technology goods which, in any event, you, who are much higher up on the industrial scale, can best leave to us so that in turn we can import the higher- technology goods that you produce. In this way, we can all mutually fuel international trade, which is an essential engine of growth and the only real solution to our poverty problem.