[Mr Ramsbotham]

Import tariffs and low interest rates have helped the economy immensely, also.

Yes, but artificially low interest rates are a pernicious poison that eventually will do an economy in. And as for tariffs, most new brooms sweep pretty clean, but in the long run, they're killers. I don't mind them being used as leverage to get better trade deals (although the best trade deal is perfectly free trade) but as "protection" they only protect producers and consumers from low prices.

[central_va]

The rest of the world practices protectionism. The rest of the world charges really high import tariff on our exports, the rest of the world operates with a trade surplus. So there must be something good about import tariffs.

Adam Smith, the trade God, never envisioned multi national corporations closing factories in England and moving production to the third world to exploit cheap labor and then re importing the same product back into England duty free! Smith would have been hung for that. That is not Free Trade. That is f--k trade.