No exceptions? None?
All other trade - with tariffs, quotas, etc - is inherently not free, and represents a degree of socialist managing of the economy.
Do you think making exceptions for national defense is "managing the econoomy" (I don't) or that it could be considered providing "for the common defense and general welfare of the United States" as the Constitution requires?
Your turn. What do you consider free trade?
Well, I always thought you could be considered to support free trade without the all-or-nothing dictate you've laid out. Under a definition of "no exceptions," no, I wouldn't support that. But that doesn't mean I am supporting "managed trade" either, as the motivation for my exceptions is not based on economic goals, but of survival.
What is your position on the practice of fair trade?
Before we get in a tit for tat over that question, can you tell me what your definition of "fair trade" is?
No exceptions means no exceptions. Period. There aren’t any items that we cannot make here, or stock in sufficient supplies right now, that would warrant the breaking of the fundamental principles of free market capitalism.
Fair trade? That is simply managed trade, socialism lite. It’s what we have now, and have had pretty much always. We move closer to real free trade, but the fair trade/managed trade crowd keeps pulling us back to the socialist side.