Perhaps it is time for a profit and loss statement of its costs and benefits. Undeniably, free trade has been a bonanza for the top 1 percent and many among our top 10 percent.
These are America’s winners from free trade. The losers? Middle Americans. The average U.S. family has not seen a rise in real wages in 40 years.
If to what you refer is crony capitalism, then I'd like to see an argument that crony capitalism can be eliminated (or reduced) by raising tariffs.
It's a little known fact that, when a U.S. company brings a trade complaint to the U.S. government, the taxpayer foots the bill for that company's legal representation via the USTR (or the USITC--I forget which). So there is little incentive to reduce frivolous complaints. The end result is that U.S. taxpayers pay to get themselves screwed by the U.S. government, with the company/industry getting the benefit. What was I saying about crony capitalism?