6b Free Trade from a Swede's Perspective

6b - "We Need Sincere Free Trade" by Johan Norberg.

Johan Norberg was born and raised in Sweden. As he grew up, he admittedly became politically disillusioned and subscribed to Anarchist beliefs hoping that they held the answer to global freedom. As he matured he disaffected from anarchist thought and found liberalism to truly hold the answer he was looking for. He studied political science and philosophy at Stockholm Univerity.

On September 10, 2003 The National Post published an article written by Norberg entitled, "We Need Sincere Free Trade." In this article, Norberg draws on his Swedish background to create an argument in favor of free trade. He states that recently in Sweden he passed "three big sugarmills." He found this strange he said, because Sweden has an extremely high latitude and is "Not your ideal place for agriculture, you would think." As he continues, he explains that because of the tariffs enforced by the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, less-developed countries don't have much of a chance to become more developed because they can't afford to export their goods. He also notes that America is doing much of the same thing with their tariffs. He argues that breaking down tariffs and instead instituting global free trade would benefit the world as a whole.

The article's publication in The National Post made his audience mainly Canadians who were in a similar economic and latidunal situation as Sweden.