And could their GDP have been rising faster if the trade barriers had started coming down significantly faster, rather than being used as a pawn in political negotiations? Does the right to make your own laws depend on your ability to drop h-bombs on other countries (well, other than in extremis), when you're in NATO anyway? As for benevolence, ask Oxfam. In fact, here we go.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/trade/bp22_eutrade.htm