Why America Needs to Support Free Trade

Heritage ^ | 1 May 2005 | Ana I. Eiras

[impimp]

Free trade is again under attack, despite having been, for over a century, the basis of America's wealth. Some groups in the United States blame free trade for the loss of manufacturing jobs, while others blame it for exposing some U.S. producers to foreign competition.

Free trade, however, is good for America, and for a very simple reason: It allows American workers to specialize in goods and services that they produce more efficiently than the rest of the world and then to exchange them for goods and services that other countries produce at higher quality and lower cost.

Specialization and free trade allow the U.S. to become more competitive and innovative. Innovation constantly provides new technologies that allow Americans to produce more, cure more diseases, pollute less, improve education, and choose from a greater range of investment opportunities. The resulting economic growth generates better-paying jobs, higher standards of living, and a greater appreciation of the benefits of living in a peaceful society.

New technologies bring about change, which, as U.S. economic history shows, benefits society as a whole. In the process, however, some sectors suffer until they can adapt to the new changes and begin to benefit from them. Today, Americans are experiencing some of that "suffering" because new technologies are challenging old methods of production.

This change is especially visible in the manufacturing sector, just as it was in the agricultural sector 100 years ago. But in the same way that it adapted then to a new, more industry-based society, America will adapt again to a new, more knowledge-based society.

[impimp]

Free trade good. Freepers who oppose free trade might turn America into North Korea.

[Jim W N]

I’m a Trump supporter but no one including Trump has it all right and Trump is wrong on the trade issue.

It is false and misleading to say we lose $500 billion to China every year. Our imports from China in 2015 totaled close to $500 Billion. He and the “trade deficit” folks call this a $500 billion LOSS. But of course it is not a loss because we traded dollars for goods.

Did I lose $100 when I bought my groceries the other day? Of course not. I got groceries for money. I didn’t LOSE when I paid for the groceries I needed. And what Trump is proposing is instead of me paying, say, $100 for goods from China, I’ll be forced to pay more, say, $200 for the same thing because of these tariffs (taxes) and protectionist measures.

Taxing imports to try to force companies to stay here doesn’t solve the problem. Everybody loses and the consumer now has to pay higher prices because the government has put a 35% tax on incoming goods.

The tax (tariff) doesn’t hurt Mexico (or any importing country) - the prices (“A”) are already contracted for between Mexican and U.S. distributors. Mexico only pays A. The tariff/tax (“B”) forces the costs of these goods to go higher as they enter our country forcing higher prices at the local distributor for the American consumer who has to pay for A PLUS B. So it’s the American consumer that is really paying for the wall and exited businesses in the form of higher prices forced upon them by these tariffs. Our tariffs directly injure the American consumer and, thus, the American economy.

So not only do tariffs not address the root causes of business moving out of America, they make matters worse. Trump needs to address the ROOT CAUSE of losing our businesses: the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. The federal government has created an unfriendly business environment in the U.S. with boneheaded policies like

- minimum wage

- taxes

- regulations

- federal protection of unions

Again, the issue is the unfriendly American business environment and weak American competitiveness caused by the skyrocketing costs of doing business due to GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE like taxes, minimum wage, regulation, and unions. Address THAT and business will WANT to return/stay because of cost benefits.

Let the voluntary cooperation of the market economy free of government interference work. Don’t layer more government interference upon that which is the root cause to begin with.

[VitacoreVision]

How the Free Trade Agenda Is Knocking Down America
-- The New American (PDF) Special Report
http://www.thenewamerican.com/files/TNA2917.pdf

The Special Report includes the following articles:

- The "Free Trade" Agenda Threatens Our Rights
- Global Merger: Piece by Piece
- The EU: Regionalization Trumps Sovereignty
- Trade Promises... and Trade Reality
- North American Union: From NAFTA to the NAU
- Fast-track: Enabler of the "Free Trade" Agenda
- Regional Scheme for the Pacific Rim
- EU/U.S. -- Transatlantic Convergence

[DannyTN]

"It allows American workers to specialize in goods and services that they produce more efficiently than the rest of the world and then to exchange them for goods and services that other countries produce at higher quality and lower cost. "

If we were just exchanging goods, that would probably be true. But we buying goods from countries with high unemployment and they aren't buying goods in return. They are buying our debt and equities. We are in effect liquidating our country to buy their goods. Their cheap imports are causing high unemployment here. And then we have to pay to support unemployed Americans in addition to what we paid for the cheap imports.

[dfwgator]

Free trade good.

It would be good if that's actually what we had, but we don't.

[VanDeKoik]

Trade =/= They get the jobs, and we get to pay them for the widgets they made with those jobs.

What EXACTLY did we trade outside of our money, self-respect, and the economies of our cities?

[Olog-hai]

Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist (or Islamist) affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

The commies do not abandon their goals simply because the USSR “fell” (or did it really?)—Goal #4 here just has a slight update to reflect what is happening today.

[RC one]

NAFTA didn’t do one good god darned thing for me.

[InterceptPoint]

I don’t anticipate a lot of friendly comments to your post. The Freepers, at least the vocal ones, are (along with Trump) in a very protectionist mood these days.

Not me. I’m with you on trade. It will be never be “Free” but tariffs and such will make things much worse, raise the prices and cost us business and jobs.

[RegulatorCountry]

Free trade hasn’t been free, though. We’ve opened our market while the majority of the world remains mercantilist and protectionist. We’ve allowed entire sectors of the domestic economy to be practically wiped out, to the detriment of working class citizens. There needs to be some concern over the health of the domestic economy above and beyond stock valuations. Public assistance has skyrocketed, it’s not as if there has been no cost to bear. Average incomes are going backwards, savings have plummeted. If protectionist measures in some instances are required to stabilize and reverse this damage, so be it. People who fell in love with free trade as ideology fail to see that it’s not at all working out as promoted.

[AuntB]

Yes, Heritage would be pimping ‘free trade’...their head economist, Stephen Moore always pushes amnesty and ‘free trade’....the problem is...it ISN’T! Agreements like Nafta, TPP are government MANAGED cheap labor, sovereignty busting sell out deals to profit the few lobbyists who write them!

Even Milton Friedman said Nafta was NOT free trade. FREE TRADE does not take thousands of pages to implement.

Heritage is just another so called ‘conservative’ entity who has you conned!

[RegulatorCountry]

Me, either. That’s when things started turning for the worse here.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Free trade works great!

For China.

[TheConservativeBanker]

Low Walmart prices are poor compensation for the loss of employment and declining real wages courtesy of rigged trade deals and lack of border integrity.

[RIghtwardHo]

There IS no free trade. Period. This isn’t the 50s where most corporations are small to medium, selling their goods. This is a world with nothing but mega corporations getting the cheapest labor wherever they can find it and doing nothing but maximizing profits.

In short, this article is so wrong it hurts.

[Leaning Right]

Free trade, however, is good for America, and for a very simple reason: It allows American workers to specialize in goods and services that they produce more efficiently than the rest of the world...

In theory, yes. In a college classroom, yes.

But in reality, no!!! American workers can "specialize" in nothing. Because whatever specialty you pick, foreign labor can undercut it. Ten dollars an hour American labor simply cannot compete against one dollar an hour foreign labor, regardless of th category.

The "free trade" meme is toxic. It will absolutely destroy the American middle class. But you will get a cheaper shirt at WalMart. That's a poor trade-off, in my opinion.

[Yashcheritsiy]

The only time free trade benefits the regular Joe is when your nation is the only real producer. Once other nations start getting the capacity to do so, but have labour costs a tenth of yours, then bye bye jobs.

Just ask the free trade United Kingdom what happened in 1890 versus 1820.

[Jimmy Valentine]

I’m for FAIR trade. No product dumping like the Chinese etc do.

[Persephone Kore]

Everything you said is true, except that tariffs would actually hurt Mexico and other exporting countries also—their volume of exports will drop, and the price they can get will drop.

But, as you said, trade wars will hurt our economy too.

The fallacy of tariffs is that if they hurt your trading partner, people feel (incorrectly) that they would help us. But it's not a zero-sum game. Tariffs will, in fact, drive our economy down too.

His advocacy of protectionism is a major reason that I cannot support Donald Trump.

[RC one]

It worked out pretty good for my uncle who is/was heavily invested in the stock market. big democrat too.