The 19 worthies on the commission, drawn fairly evenly from countries that import and export labour, roundly condemned illegal immigration.
"Our economy has always been dependent on migrant labour but we export labour as well," he says.
For the past two decades we have exported labour to the US, mostly men, while the women stay behind to work in difficult conditions with the land".
As Geoffrey Dennis, of Care UK, points out, many other regions of Sri Lanka exported labour to the tourist resorts of the south, and so are beginning to feel the pinch of the current slump.There is also a risk that the authorities may over-react, and introduce ill-considered new policies.
The aim of the $2 billion project, backed by the state government of Nuevo León and private investors, is to allow cargoes to skip the long queues at customs posts on the border, 240km (150 miles) to the north.Projects like the Interpuerto matter for Mexico, the economy of which depends on exporting labour-intensive manufactured goods to its giant neighbour.
Results show that also at micro level in most sectors investments and patents correlate positively both with the probability of being an exporter and with the capacity to acquire and to increase exports, whereas labour costs show a negative effect only in some sectors.
The first is demographic: despite the fears about "exporting jobs", labour shortages in white-collar jobs are emerging in America and other rich countries.
In exchange for acceptance of international standards for intellectual-property rights, poor countries were meant to get a warm welcome for their exports of labour-intensive goods such as farm products and textiles.
