Anti-Reimportation Hooey

Most people who want the government to block the reimportation of medicines justify their position by pointing to Canada’s price controls. They say that reimportation of medicines is tantamount to importation of those controls. If the government restricts trade every time some country’s interventionism produces arbitrage opportunities, we’re going to have an awfully comprehensive set of trade restrictions.

Addendum: Some free-marketeers, including Milton Friedman, say reimportation should be stopped to protect the patent system. I say allow reimportation; abolish patents (and copyrights).