“ SUMMARY OF THE CHOICE: A FABLE OF FREE TRADE AND PROTECTIONISM”The book, “The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism” written by“Russell Roberts”, discusses the concepts relating to free trade, protectionism andliberalization. This book shows the significance of free trade among different nations and thedisadvantages of protectionism. The book stresses the need for free trade and explains withexamples how it benefited the United States. The author makes the book interesting to readby discussing the concepts relating to global business by linking them to a story and the bookgoes as a conversation all through making it easily readable. The book is fragmented intoseventeen small chapters each discussing some important business concepts which can beeasily learnt through the examples in the conversation of the story. The first chapter of the book, “Minutes of the Heavenly Court: Soul of DavidRicardo” is a small conversation, between the Magistrate and David Ricardo in court, thatexplains the significance of free trade. David Ricardo gives his idea on how the glory of theUnited States can be achieved by adapting free trade. In the next chapter “The Challenge of Foreign Competition” the author explainedwith example the impact of foreign competition on local business. The example is about theJapanese televisions acquiring the market in the United States posing danger to the localmarket there. The locals then requested for the reduction in imports from Japan because theircompetition lead to the reduction in sales of the local televisions and also loss of jobs to thelocal workers. So they thought of banning imports from Japan but the importance of freetrade and strategies is later realised.The next chapter, “The Roundabout Way to Wealth” introduces the need for foreignexchange in trade considering some important factors like labour costs, time, foreignexchange, better resource utilization. The given example discusses the buying of televisionsfrom Japan by the United States and the selling of drugs to Japan. This is nothing but theexchange of televisions and drugs between japan and the United States. This exchange ofdrugs for televisions by the United States reminds us of the barter system that once existed.But here, there is exchange of foreign currency in addition, which makes the process moreflexible as the banks are involved in making foreign exchange among various nations ofdifferent currencies. This chapter also signifies the value of time and how making efficientuse of it can fetch us with profits. Any country cannot produce all by itself; it is must for anynation to depend on others for one or the other product. Even if a nation can produce aproduct by itself, it may be that importing that product benefits it more than by producing iton own. So a better strategy in needed by a nation in deciding to import or produce a productwhichever is more profitable to it. The author next presents the need to consider labour costsand resource utilization in this scenario. He explains these points in his example. The labourcosts in the United States are higher compared to those in Japan. So production of televisionsin the United States is costlier than in Japan and hence the United States imports them fromJapan. The United States has the capability of producing better televisions than Japan but stillit imports because of its strategy to use the resources needed for television production forproduction of drugs. Thus the United States makes better utilization of resources and exportstheir drugs to Japan and imports televisions from Japan. Grabbing the right opportunities atthe right time helps in achieving glory. Free trading in free global market brings about manyadvantages to most nations. Independent living is impossible; dependence and mutual supportand help make things easy and profitable to all even though some clashes may existsometimes.The next chapter, “Is Trade Good for America?” is all about the pros and cons of freetrading by the United States. This chapter discusses the possible advantages anddisadvantages of free trading and how it affects the standards of living in a country. Whatmakes a nation wealthier? The better utilization of skills of people in a nation for moreproductive work with available resources makes a nation wealthier. The author againcompares between Japan and the United States to explain this point. To know if a nation iswealthier or not, one needs to compare wages and prices. Japan’s wages are high compared tothose of the United States but the prices in Japan are also relatively higher. This means thatthe United States is wealthier than Japan; this is possible because the United States madeproductive use of the available skills. And in this comparison wages includes not just thehourly wages but all the compensations are included. In addition to the better utilization ofskills and resources, wiser use of time is even more important. And even quality and quantityaspects should be given due consideration. It is true that some jobs are lost due to free tradinglike the loss of jobs due to reduced television production but certainly there is replacement inthose jobs with the others because there is increase in production of other products like drugsfor exporting. Locals faced the competition from foreign labour to some extent but their nextgenerations could have better standards of living. Improved technology helped in reducedtimes and costs in production and improved speed and efficiency. Cheaper things can bemade with improved technology and less low waged workforce there by increasingproduction density. MNCs set up assembly plants in low-wage Asian countries and providejob opportunities there and also increase their production at low costs and makes use of richresources. Though there is unemployment lo locals in some fields to some extent, otheropportunities can be availed by them. It is thought that free trading causes initial suffering butoffers better future for coming generations; but the author mentions that it offers better livingeven today as prices fall due to increased production at low costs.The next chapter, “Are Manufacturing Jobs Better than Service Jobs?” discusses thechanges in proportions of manufacturing and