My new book Conscientious  Equity spells out why it is important for the US to engage the rest of the world to improve living conditions for everyone.  Conscientious Equity is about a new kind of transaction and interaction between America and its trading partners. At its core is the enactment of Conscientious Equity Accords that tear down the manipulations, barriers and distortions that prevent the natural flow of goods, services and ideas.  If you need a primer on the value of trade, the malaria epidemic ravaging Africa will serve as a life lesson.

More than 800,000 Africans die each year from malaria.  Most of them are children.  The tragedy is that most of these deaths can be prevented with something as simple as mosquito nets and regular spraying of homes. Medications and early diagnosis of the disease with technology now available and affordable, also play a vital role.  The trouble is that taxes, tariffs and red tape elevate the cost of these products beyond the means of most Africans.  And it also delays the shipping of these life-saving solutions.

Uganda and Tanzania, while hardly model countries, recognized that they could help combat malaria by removing taxes and tariffs on all anti-malarial commodities.  When these measures took place, the cost of mosquito netting went down so that more families could afford to purchase them.  Demand rose. Lives are being saved.

This is not the happy ending of a fairy tale just yet.  But it demonstrates how Conscientious Equity can heal a nation.  All it takes is a vision that freely flowing goods, services and ideas is not merely about money, it is about improving the standard of living for all people.