Although the world's population has more than doubled, to reach six billion this year, exports per capita are eight times as high in real terms as in 1948. The figures are so enormous it is difficult to take them in. Behind them is the reality that trade has contributed enormously to world growth and prosperity over the half century, bringing better jobs and more resources for education, health and other social spending. Despite the poverty that still exists in too many countries, the fact is that the world is far more prosperous now than it has ever been. All too often, the anti-trade lobbies blame economic disruption and job losses on international competition when the cause is inevitable technological change.
Nobody seriously wants to put the clock back on human progress.
Technological change is inevitably accompanied by the transformation of whole industries. Think what the advent of the motor car and the demise of the horsedrawn carriage meant for the job market in the early years of this century. More recently, consider the impact of the word processor on typewriter manufacturers, of radio on newspapers, of television on radio. They all had to adjust. Business enterprise thrives on change, on seizing new opportunities and on creating new products to satisfy new markets.