As someone who lived and worked abroad, I can tell you that Americans get the short end of the stick on free trade.
Most countries have tariff and non-tariff barriers on US goods and services.
Plus, there is the barrier of corruption. Americans are prevented by law to engage in foreign corruption, but other countries don’t care. They will buy off politicians and bureaucrats. Ask yourself why US companies don’t do high end construction projects abroad. But you got Chinese and Japanese companies bidding for projects everywhere.
Americans are sorely at a disadvantage for any kind of foreign contract ANYWHERE in the world.
Some will say, but what about McDonalds, Starbucks, Coke and Pepsi and all those products of US imperialism.
Those brands are licensed by local distributors. The parent company gets residuals, but everything is sourced locally.
If you are in high tech, the foreign country will steal the technology, then copy it and produce it at a fraction of the cost. This is how Japan got rich. Go to any international trade show and all the high tech that we produce is knocked off. And the US doesn’t enforce intellectual property rights in foreign courts.
For an American to enter a foreign market, he has to go through a regulatory and tax hell that surpasses anything a foreigner has to go through in the US.
And on top of that, try enforcing international contracts through foreign legal systems.
Most foreign countries don’t have liberal traitorous judges that will rule in favor of the foreigner every time.
In fact, foreigners will steal from Americans in business all the time, and if the American dares to go to court, he can end up dead or broke.
I do overseas business all the time. It cracks me up to think of all the little twinkie Free Traitors back in the U.S. babbling theoretical BS from Adam WhatHisName or some blissninny Libertarian web site.
The people outside of the borders of the U.S. don't believe ANY of that crap. They see weaklings willing to let them take something, SO THEY DO.
To them, what's theirs is theirs, what's ours is negotiable.
20 to 30 million unemployed souls probably agree with you. FR-traders are just stupid!