Far too many people buy into the idea of saving
North Carolina’s textile industry by imposing quotas and
duties on imports allegedly dumped on the market by China. Circumventing the free market isn’t the answer, wrote Paul Messino at
A World Connected. Messino described the process to end textile
quotas that emerged from the 1994 Uruguay Round of trade negotiations,
as well as subsequent federal legislation that has thwarted the effort.
Instead, he explained, we must
understand and support policies that acknowledge the global
marketplace. “Meanwhile, it is important to
remember that bolstering a failing industry is not only inefficient it
keeps industries from adaptation and change.”