If you want to understand why anti-free-trade demonstrators in Argentina were so angry nearly two weeks ago, visit a small metal-working factory in a humdrum Japanese village near where I spend weekends. Outside it looks nondescript. But inside it is a technological wonder -- CAD/CAM-operated machine tools, overhead cranes, everything needed for sophisticated manufacture of a range of metal products.
That factory has been around for a long time. It began life supplying local farmers with needed tools. Then as tools became mass-produced and cheap, it moved into specialized products needed by nearby construction and other firms. As competition further intensified, it went out and bought the advanced machines needed to remain competitive.
If that miracle of industrialization could happen in a small, isolated Japanese village, why can't it happen in the under-developed world? The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization free-traders would say that the locals there are too backward, that they should concentrate on producing simple farm or other labor-intensive goods, and exchange them for sophisticated goods made elsewhere.