Um alerta pertinente, na National Review, sobre o conceito de "fair" trade, uma das mais erróneas (e perigosas) noções que os proteccionistas têm vindo a utilizar no seu combate contra o comércio livre:
Support for free trade in the developed world is in reality giving way to a multitude of dubious conceptions of "fair" trade. Free trade is now judged to be fair trade only when foreign traders meet certain "standards." There are a variety of new and imaginative charges of "dumping," sanctions against which are said to be justified in order to protect standards at home. Ostensibly to construct a "level playing field" for international trade, the ever-growing body of fair-trade lobbies is laying the groundwork for a new web of supranational regulation, which, if not contained, has the potential to generate enormous international friction, stifle innovation, and damage prospects for world growth. The fair-trade lobbies are not actually concerned with leveling playing fields, but with leveling up their competitors' production costs so as to protect their high-cost producers.
