Oh, I believe in a free market. I just don’t think I have ever seen one in my lifetime. Why is it Americans always get the short end of the stick in these trade agreements. The trade imbalances are always against us by massive amounts.
You might want to go to Latin America and listen to the complaints about US getting the advantage in trade agreements.
You seem to define “free trade” as trade in which the US comes out even or ahead. What if the US comes out behind in the trade because US consumers choose, freely, to purchase cheap stuff made in China rather than equivalent products at a much higher price made in USA?
Let me give you a little example. Back in the 80s I worked for several years cleaning carpets. Had to wear leather work shoes or my feet break out, but the chemicals used for the cleaning wreck a pair of leather shoes in about four months.
At the time little was being imported from China, and I bought US-made Red Wing shoes for about $75 a pop. That’s $175 today per the CPI. A non-insignificant chunk of my not-huge income at the time. Today, Red Wing still sells roughly-equivalent shoes, for about $275.
Meanwhile, today I can go to Walmart and buy entirely functional leather work shoes for $30. Now they aren’t as well made as the Red Wings, and they aren’t as comfortable, but they’re functional. If I were still cleaning carpet, they’d still be destroyed in four months whether I wore the $275 pair or the $30 pair, so durability of the better-made US product is more or less irrelevant.
So the question arises. Should a low to moderate income carpet cleaner in MO be forced to pay 9x the price for a functional pair of footwear so a moderate income factory worker in MN can keep his job?
Extrapolate that across many items, and the standard of living for most Americans, especially those on the low end, goes way down.
For some obscure reason, a great many American sneer at lower prices. But would never dream of showing contempt for an increase in income.
Yet a 10% decrease in what I pay for a product is functionally equivalent to a 10% raise. Actually better, since I don’t have to pay taxes on the money I save on the cheaper product.