This past Saturday evening, March 1, Argentine President Javier Milei opened up a new session of his country’s Congress with a speech that is worth listening to in its entirety. But on a day that the United States continues down the protectionist path and imposes high tariffs on its three largest trading partners, I thought it useful to highlight Milei’s words to the legislators that provide a contrasting and clear-eyed view on the importance of free trade:
“We need to give back to Argentines the freedom to trade with whomever they wish, so that goods and services can enter the local market and everyone can freely buy better quality products at a better price. For decades, under the premise of protecting a handful of jobs, the cost of living was deliberately made more expensive for millions of Argentines. In many cases, even forcing them to purchase goods of dubious quality at completely distorted prices. It is not fair that only those who can afford a trip abroad can buy what they want at international prices. It has to be for everyone. Opening markets will also open the doors of the world to Argentine companies so that they can sell our products to 8 billion people, in an international context where what Argentina has to offer will be in great demand.
“I also want to put an end here to another fallacy, which they have been using to lie to us for almost a hundred years, and that is the issue of the infant industry, an infant that is at least 90 years old. Or, let’s say, to protect industry X, because it generates jobs. That is also another lie. Because if in the process of opening up the economy, a better quality or better-priced product enters and a company goes bankrupt, it is also true that consumers now have more money in their pockets and can spend it in other sectors of the economy. Therefore, employment will be reallocated and will go to sectors where it is more productive and where there are higher wages and, therefore, there is greater welfare for all. Therefore, enough of the protectionist lie, because, in the end, it is nothing more than a scam between politicians and rent-seeking businessmen.”