The evidence is in, and it’s irrefutable. Is global free trade a good thing? Take a look at this map of the locations of suppliers, factories, and sales offices that come together to bring us Nutella.
The accompanying post explains:
Even though Ferrero International, which makes the stuff, is headquartered in Italy, it has factories in Europe, Russia, North America and South America. And while certain inputs are supplied locally—like, say, the plastic for the bottles or milk—many others are shipped from all over the world. The hazelnuts are from Turkey; the palm oil is from Malaysia; the cocoa is from Nigeria; the sugar is from either Brazil or Europe; and the vanilla flavoring is from France.
So global trade = Nutella. And, presumably, the freer that trade, the easier it will be for me to actually get the Nutella and the less it will cost me. I’m sold. Global free trade is a wonderful thing. You can’t argue with the chocolatey hazelnut goodness.
Not to mention all the jobs that are created in all of those countries by sourcing cocoa and hazelnuts and vanilla, processing it, and distributing it worldwide. It really is a remarkable, almost magical, thing. And I can’t see any government making that work quite so well as Ferrero does.
