We should stop engaging in the mental masturbation that we can hold our businesses to the rules of “free trade” agreements while allowing other countries to walk all over us, whether by direct violation of the agreement or by monetary policy that is gamed to support their exports to the US. eg, Japan has deliberately targeted the value of the yen three times recently to insure that their exports remain cheap in the US. China pegs their currency to the USD to insure that they’re always able to under-price US producers of any product the Chinese wish to export to the US.
If we want reality to reign supreme in trade, then we should ditch these idiotic multi-lateral trade “agreements” that are passed by legislation and executive fiat (when in fact, they should be subject to the same level of Congressional approval as a treaty, because these trade agreements are being used to trump domestic law and policy) and start enacting bi-lateral trade agreements with every country with whom we wish to trade. This way, if they choose to not abide by the terms of the agreement, then we can either dissolve the agreement or write in clauses for orderly reflexive counter-action to their violations instead of taking these issues up with the WTO or some other extra-national body.
How about the fact that nations don't trade with nations. People trade with people. And if I engage in trade with a Chinese company, I do so because it benefits me (and, presumably, the trade benefits him.) I do not need Congress to tell me with whom I may freely do business.
It's none of the Federal Government's damned business. The government-regulated trade advocates think they know what is best for the common good. Lenin did, too.
If allowed, free trade would benefit all nations involved. Once the government starts dictating quotas and prices, our society has become that much more enslaved.
Bastiat stated in The Law that the only two violations of man's individual rights in America were slavery and tariffs. Smith in the second book of The Wealth Of Nations describes foreign trade, even deficit spending as an advantage as long as the imports are self sustaining and can be improved in the domestic economy(an advantage the Chinese are capitalizing upon, they import raw materials while we import creature comforts; again greatly encouraged by our government.