free trade
30 pieces tagged “free trade”, newest first.
Grassley to Trump: Drop Tariffs or the Trade Deal Gets It
The senator is largely right on the merits, but the president is invested in his strategy.
A Booming Economy, but Tariffs
The flap over Harley-Davidson reveals the dark cloud in an otherwise bright economy.
The Importance of Free Trade
Trump’s America-first agenda is welcome, but he must take care to ensure beneficial negotiations.
Renegotiating NAFTA
The Trump administration has released its priorities for reworking the free trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
Is the End Near for NAFTA?
That depends on whether Trump wants to scrap the deal or renegotiate. He’s held both positions.
Hillary Joins the Protectionists
Clinton’s reversal on free trade is politically opportunistic.
The Seen and Unseen
Claude Frederic Bastiat (1801-50) — a French classical liberal theorist, political economist and member of the French National Assembly — wrote an influential essay titled “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen.” Bastiat argued that when making laws or economic decisions, it is imperative that we examine not only what is seen but what is unseen. In other words, examine the whole picture. Americans who support tariffs on foreign goods could benefit immensely from Bastiat’s admonition. A concrete example was the Bush administration’s 8 to 30 percent tariffs in 2002 on several types of imported steel. They were levied in an effort to protect jobs in the ailing U.S. steel industry.
Gullible Americans
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), satirist, essayist and political pamphleteer, is a favorite of mine. He wrote “Gulliver’s Travels.” One of Gulliver’s voyages was to Laputa, where he visited the grand academy of Lagado, whose scientists have visions not unlike today’s politicians who exploit mankind’s gullibility. Before getting around to our politicians, how about a quick synopsis of Gulliver’s visit to the grand academy of Lagado, where scientists were trying to solve important problems? To wage war against famine, one scientist was trying to convert excrement back into food. For eight years, another scientist was engaged in a project to extract sunbeams from cucumbers
Battening Down the Hatches, Reminiscent of the 1930s
Battening down the hatches. That’s what America and much of the rest of the world seem to be doing today, in an eerie re-enactment, though to much less of a degree, of what America and the world did in the 1930s. The result then wasn’t very pretty. The result now is unknown. One way the hatches are being battened down is that the volume of world trade has been declining, and not just temporarily, in response to the financial crisis of fall 2008.
Our Inalienable Right to Free Trade
Who says nothing ever gets accomplished in Washington? When the House of Representatives voted this fall to lift the nation’s 40-year ban on exporting crude oil produced in the United States, the measure seemed doomed in the face of White House opposition. But on Wednesday, congressional leaders settled on a massive spending and tax package, and, wonder of wonders, the resumption of oil exports made the final cut. Both House and Senate were expected to pass the legislation promptly (albeit grudgingly); President Obama has said he’ll sign it.