Global trade works idealistically, but the playing field has to be even for all partners. It is not even for us. The Republicans just can’t bring themselves to admit it. It’s true that lowering corporate taxes would help, but that won’t solve the problem.
Free trade to the founders did not mean low tariffs and quotas. Free trade meant a merchant could sell or buy wares in any country. Under the British Empire, the colonies were restricted in terms of where they could sell their tobacco, cotton, naval stores and other exports. Plus they were restricted as to where they could buy goods.
The founders used tariffs to build and industrial nation. in the 19th century, tariff on imported goods were high, protecting developing US industry from price competition and dumping by the more developed European nations. Had modern tariff policies (since 1990) been in effect in the 1800’s the US would not have developed the largest and strongest economy in the world.
The US is blessed to have the size, population, and resources to develop and sustain an independent economy. Few nations are so blessed. The founders and early policy makers grasped this fact and used tariffs, along with two large oceans, to keep the US independent as it was growing.
The current low tariff policies only serve to support the globalist socialist state agenda. Twenty-five years of modern free trade theories have resulted in the deindustrialization of the economy, declining standards of living for the American worker, the death of a large middle class, the decline of job creating small business, and rising income disparity. The only beneficiaries are foreign workers and companies, Wall Street bankers, and executives at multinational companies.
Trump knows that to make America great again we need to raise tariffs, rebuild our manufacturing base, and return to self sufficiency.