Principle of Comparative Advantage: Bicentenary

Lord Rooker Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Mobarik]

I absolutely agree with my noble friend. To reinforce that, according to the World Bank, in the three decades between 1981 and 2011 liberalised trade practices in the developing world saw the proportion of their citizens living on less than $1.25 a day fall from 50% to under 20%. This represents the greatest decrease in material deprivation in human history.

[Lord Rooker (Lab)]

Do the principles of free trade mean that after we leave the EU this country will be flooded with American beef stuffed with hormones, which, while we are members of the EU, we are protected from?

[Baroness Mobarik]

No, I do not think that would be the case.