Free Trade and Socialism are antithetical concepts.
Socialism is about controlling the means of production: inserting the Government between buyer and seller.
Free Trade is about removing the Government from between buyer and seller.
Why should someone who wants to buy something be forced to buy it from one of your approved manufacturers?
Case in point: Obama wants everyone to buy their cars from unionised domestic producers like GM. If (using some section of Cap and Trade) he put a massive tarriff on foreign exports so that only crappy GM cars were affordable, would you clap and cheer?
We've seen this movie, or one very like it, at the end of the '70's.
To forestall U.S. tariffs being raised, Japanese car importers agreed to "voluntary import quotas". This voluntary restraint by the Japanese had a number of sequelae:
- Japanese imports fell
- Imported-car dealers responded to the constriction in earnings opportunity by hanging every dealer-installed option they could on the stock they had available, raising prices as far as possible
- Japanese manufacturers began to plan for "assembly" (kit-assembly) plants in the U.S. that would a) leave most of the profits in Japan and b) meet congressional "content" guidelines
- General Motors and other crappy-car makers promptly raised prices -- a lot. A Chevrolet Caprice that stickered, loaded, for $5600 in 1976 went for over $12,000 in the 1980's.
Pure genius.
Oh, and by the way -- with U.S. car production falling, the Japanese and other foreign mfrs will now re-think their U.S. assembly-plant complexes. Massive job losses could result if Nissan, Honda, VW, etc., repatriate production or move it to some sweatshop like Mexico. The parts manufacturers will follow.
Happy Labor Day.