Free Trade and Protection - Essay Example

There is no doubt pertaining to the fact that protection and free trade are the two approaches which can as much be resorted to by the developing world as by the developed world to meet their growth objectives and the domestic challenges. Especially more so when the US has an elaborate history of being open to the industrial products from foreign nations while strictly controlling the influx of their agricultural products. Pragmatically speaking, an allegiance of the developing world to the free trade will not be of any use to it, unless it aids in its objectives of poverty alleviation and extending health, nutrition, and education to the poorest of the poor.

Considering the fact that large parts of China and India are facing a situation of severe drought, the producers of critical agricultural products in these two nations definitely needs to be protected. With farmers in the Telangana (India’s cotton belt) and Vidarbha (India’s breadbasket) parts of India committing suicide owing to the massive losses incurred by them on a continuous basis and the inflation in India soaring to double-digit figures, India’s farming sector certainly needs to be protected from the onslaught of American farm products.

The gravity of this tragedy is further accentuated by the fact that loan waivers of INR 60, 00 million extended by the Indian government failed to rescue the Indian farmers from a predominant mood of despondency, hopelessness, and frustration and the suicides are still continuing.. Especially more so when the US has an elaborate history of being open to the industrial products from foreign nations while strictly controlling the influx of their agricultural products. Pragmatically speaking, an allegiance of the developing world to the free trade will not be of any use to it, unless it aids in its objectives of poverty alleviation and extending health, nutrition and education to the poorest of the poor.

Considering the fact that large parts of China and India are facing a situation of severe drought, the producers of critical agricultural products in these two nations definitely needs to be protected. With farmers in the Telengana (India's cotton belt) and Vidarbha (India's bread basket) parts of India committing suicide owing to the massive losses incurred by them on a continuous basis and the inflation in India soaring to double digit figures, India's farming sector certainly needs to be protected from the onslaught of American farm products.

The gravity of this tragedy is further accentuated by the fact that a loan waver of INR 60, 00 million extended by the Indian government failed to rescue the Indian farmers from a predominant mood of despondency, hopelessness and frustration and the suicides are still continuing. Perhaps it is easy for the US to sing the songs of free trade, when its farming sector is primarily mechanized and employs merely 1.9 percent of its population. Contrary to this, China has nearly 23 percent of its population employed in agriculture while in India this figure stands at an astonishing 58 percent.

Considering the contemporary recessionary global trends, the economic growth in India has already plummeted to 5.3 percent from the projected target of 7 percent. Large scale lay offs already becoming