>I think you misunderstood my initial comment.
>I too wouldn't mind "free trade" if that's what it really was. But my personal experience says it is NOT - at least as regular folks are concerned.

OK, I understand what you are saying now.

>BUT I am decidedly NOT for 'globalization' that includes outsourcing and manufacturing moved off-shore just to exploit some poor souls who essentially have NO CHOICE in the matters of work environment and pay scales.

The only way I see to stop outsourcing is for the government to step in and require that companies within their borders only hire citizens of that country. That, in my opinion, is a bad idea.

As far as the poor souls with no choice, I too would like to see their living standards improve. But that certainly isn't going to happen if companies outside their borders can't hire them. A bad job is often better than no job.

>As regards the Whil thing, it was not Whil's costs that went up. It was people who had experiences like mine ASKING Whil to try other routes and Whil bending over backwards trying to do so but not succeeding.
>His customers were being forced to pay LARGE extra costs for no sensible reason given "free trade" and he tried hard to help us avoid them.

Whil's costs did go up. He, or one of his employees, had to spend time trying to figure out how to ship the goods a different way. While this may not seem like much, it certainly added to his costs.