[Willie Green]

Proponents of laissez-faire seek minimal or no government regulation of markets, and Bastiat stood strongly for that tradition. He had seen what burdensome government regulation and taxation had done to his birthplace many years earlier, as well as the serious effect they had on France's economy during his years of reflection.

These are the lessons that modern "free" traders intentionally ignore:
that the current regulatory pracitices of our own government render our domestic industries at a competitive disadvantage in the global market. Instead of removing those shackles, the present Administration facilitates those who would profit from the disparity by undermining our own domestic businesses and industries.

[secretagent]

And those who would restrict foreign trade, without removing burdensome regulations, might make matters worse.