You assume to much because you have some prefixed notion that ‘free trade’ solves all. In the ideal sense, you may be right but ‘free trade’ is NEVER that. There are always foreign governments and interests seeking to make a buck using influence and non-free tactics.
We disagree. Okay.....you aren’t going to change apparently. Neither will I. I am at least hoping we both will vote for Trump.
You have a very fertile imagination. Free trade is about freedom and it is the exact opposite of protectionism. Protectionism empowers government at the expense of the individual and is a sure fire method for increasing cronyism. Free trade, however you might define it, reduces taxes and government control of the economy which makes government bureaucrats less influential resulting in less cronyism.
Free trade may not always work out like Adam Smith, Hayek or Friedman envisioned, but pursuing it is light years better than pleading to government bureaucrats for protection.