Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland
I'm reading the book The Divide at the moment. It makes the argument that it takes time and the right conditions to build up an industry - infrastructure needs to be built, education and a skilled labor pool with the necessary know-how as well. To begin with, a fledgling industry in a developing country cannot compete with those of already industrialized countries - these are already so effective that they can undercut newcomers before they have time to become competitive. So the book argues that when developing countries are pressured into free trade agreements (for example by making aid dependent on this), these countries are also forced into a position where they get stuck at the low end of the production value chain, selling raw materials, while buying processed goods from others (often the same role they were forcibly assigned when they were colonies). So much like we allow children time to learn in school before we expect them to compete in the job market, we should allow developing countries to employ protectionistic policies like tariffs, in order to protect and build up their fledgling industries nationally, before fully entering the world market in a couple decades when they are ready.