“So the choice becomes between either a wildly expensive US source or a cheap foreign source.”
Also, a Western farmer can’t ship grain over water unless he pays the Union rate or he uses a foreign ship. Shipping under the present rules means his grain price is easily beaten by a foreign supplier. His only choice to keep his price competitive is to ship the grain overseas.
I’m not disagreeing with you totally. I’m saying there needs to be a wholistic analysis. Other laws could be made to cover the many smaller issues that would arise.
Your counter-example with the Western farmer is a good one. A sensible Congress should be able to sort this all out.
But when was the last time we had a sensible Congress?
Maybe never?