GA, it certaily only make good economic sense to import goods which this country CANNOT produce on it's own, or prodcue in quantites sufficient to make then available at a reasonable price. That is not my problem with "free trade".
My issue is when the government of this country openly conspires to undermine both American labor and industry. As an example, I put it to you that the end result of agreements such as NAFTA has been to destroy organized labor and re-institute, as closely as possible, legal slavery by merely transporting the slavery from within the borders of the United States to Mexico, Indonesia, etc.
Now, I'm no fan of labor unions, but it is no secret that neither the government or busienss actually likes them (unless the union is pumping money into a campaign or giving back negtiated pay and benefits simply to keep jobs).
There are host of industries in this country (notably steel, automobles, electronics) that are being systematically dismantled and shipped to places where labor laws simply do not exist, and where an American CEO can maximize his company's profits by simply avoiding having to pay a decent wage to anyone. While it is the job of the executive to maximize profits in any way he can, at some point this method becomes counter-productive to his nation, as the skills and manufacturing base required to produce soom goods and commodities (many of them much more vital than coffee, cocoa or saffron) simply disappear.
Perhaps if American corporations spent more time figuring out how to better serve the consumer and give them what they wanted, at a reasonable price, they would not have to resort to shortchanging the workers (and, more importantly, THE CONSUMERS) they depend upon.
We are putting our own people out of work, and destroying our own economic base, for the sake of higher stock prices and dividends.
I see it somewhat differently, that the government conspires to undermine SOME industries and SOME jobs for the benefit of a politically well connected other industries and other segments of the workforce. If we really did have a level playing field then I suspect that you wouldn't object, but the government doesn't level the playing field, it levels the scoreboard.
Seems like Gresham's law doesn't it? Good money drives out the bad...
BTW - when is the last time a labor union - as opposed to an auto manufacturer - has been found in restriant of trade? So is it that there are "places where labor laws do not exist" or that U.S. labor unions have been granted too many subsidies/protections. The answer lies in the suffering business model of Ford nd GM, whose eventual bankruptcies, just like thier cousins in the steel industry, are inevitable.
Blame the CEOs, not the trade deals. American steelmakers allowed their plants to rot while the rest of the world modernized, and Honda, Toyota and Nissan are all expanding their US manufacturing operations while the Big Three automakers flounder.
One big reason why the U.S. was able to maintain a strong manufacturing sector in the past was that the country was less of a "nation" than it is today -- and regional variations in the cost of doing business allowed different parts of the U.S. to deal with each other as "trading partners" even though they were part of the same country.
The implementation of things like national safety standards, national environmental standards, a national pension system, etc. effectively put the U.S. manufacturing sector on the road to inevitable decline -- at least from the standpoint of its role as a major source of employment compared to other sectors.