Doesn't mean their arguments are truthful or valid.
If you want to know the real truth about trade history read
Free Trade doesn't work: What should replace it and why.
There are excerpts on the site. The exerpts from chapter 6 on the history of free trade are informative and I'm sure different than the history CATO claims.
Free Trade(not really free but we'll call it that) works for a lot of people for a long while. But but by default it is an unsustainable system for the consuming nation. There is a net wealth drain from the USA to the rest of the world. It can last forever.
There are only 3 ways to CREATE wealth, mine it, make it or grow it. We are throwing away one entire leg of the wealth stool for a few pennies on the dollar. Our national security is at risk and we are f-ed in the long run. 200 hundred years of industrial infrastructure thrown away in the name of "free trade". Other than Europe, who does that?