Free trade to the founding fathers was simple:
1). A high tariff on imported goods to fund the federal government without taxing citizens directly. One positive side effect of this tariff was protecting developing US manufacturing from cheap European imports. As a result the US had the strongest industrial economy on the planet by 1900 and a rapidly growing middle class. In addition, reliance on tariffs for funding had the benefit of keeping the federal government small.
2). US merchants were free to trade with any nation on any terms these private actors, not the government, could negotiate with their foreign trade partners. Freedom of trade meant no government restrictions on who you traded with. It had nothing to do with tariffs (taxes on imports).
It is interesting that even with high tariffs the US developed the largest economy in the world and became a great trading nation. Yankee clipper ships plied the oceans carrying US goods abroad and returning with products not produced in the US. Despite what today’s free traders tell us, America became the most prosperous nation in the world with very high tariffs and no trade deals with foreign powers.
All government negotiated trade deals and regulations are anti competitive. They benefit foreign nations, domestic special interests and entrenched government bureaucracies, not the American people. It is long past time to learn from policies that really worked as opposed to the theories of academics and promoters of special interests. We need to raise tariffs and scrap all the trade agreements and rules negotiated over the last century. End taxpayer funded subsidies such as the Import-Export Bank. Let American business compete in the global economy (or not) through private deals and negotiations. If US multinationals can’t compete without US government help and intervention with foreign powers they should redirect their activities to the domestic market or fail.
Immigration policy is a different issue than trade. The first responsibility of any national government is to protect its citizens, not to take in the world’s refugees, benefit private industry by bringing in foreign workers to undercut the wages of citizens, or changing the ethnic mix of society in order to change its culture and values. Free immigration is as dangerous to the nation’s economy and welfare as “free” trade deals encompassing thousands of pages of rules and regulations delineating special privileges.
Outstanding post! You nailed it!