Unfortunately, we passed that point 30 years ago. Now it is other countries pulling us down to climb over us. There is NO free trade. There is only fair trade in which everyone must compete under the same rules.
Second, even that notion is way, way outside traditional conservative thinking until the 1980s. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, Lincoln, McKinley, TR, Harding, Coolidge, and even Ike believed in tariffs (Ike didn’t have to use them because we were sooooo far superior to everyone else due to the war). The conservative position pre Reagan was ALWAYS “fair trade/reciprocity”.
We’re benefiting from exports to a degree we never did back then. The idea of getting into a tit-for-tat tariff war will hurt the stock market as much as it does consumers’ wallets and the real economy.
“U.S. exports in 2013 supported 11.3 million jobs, an increase of 1.6 million export-supported jobs since 2009.”
The end game is always what brings consumers better products at lower prices. There is no reason for anyone to do a job if it doesn’t deliver that result. The name of the game is competition. Competing with the world creates more innovation and efficiency than just competing within the U.S.
“I don’t want things to change because I want to keep my job” has never been an argument that’s been worthwhile. Our standard of living has advanced because of the creative destruction that comes from letting the consumer choose to buy their products from a better company without a bureaucrat punishing them for it, driving the bad company out of business.