Free trade has become somewhat of a myth. In this country we encourage monopolies and near monopolies and even have one company that owns the choices of almost all corporations in America. That is the triply entangled Black Rock, Vanguard, and State Street. We have companies that are “Too big to fail,” which are bailed out of their financial woes by government whose legislators and bureaucrats own stock in them. Managed and protected trade is not free trade.
Free markets require lack of monopolies or monopsonies and lack of “externalities” i.e. fingers on the scale, bought of judges and bureaucrats, and regulation favorable to the insiders, and other forms of crony capitalism, which is a form of proto-fascism.