In the past, leaders across the political spectrum have acknowledged the importance of free trade. As Kofi Annan said as Secretary-General of the UN, “open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world.” But in recent years the mood has changed. Barack Obama threatened to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement during his election campaign. Hillary Clinton’s candidacy was far less open to free trade than her husband’s had been fifteen years before. The current financial crisis has made matters worse, with calls for “British jobs for British workers” and a “Buy American” clause drafted into the US economic recovery package.

Politicians respond to their electorates, and are happy to supply economic populism to increase their support and perhaps distract attention from their own responsibility for what has happened. But such short term thinking risks serious damage to the world economy, and the hope of the world’s poor for a better life. The principle of free trade and its clear and continuing benefits needs to be reaffirmed by all responsible voices whatever their political affiliation.