Actual Free Trade
by Rod D. Martin
June 9, 2018
Every one of our major trading partners imposes enormous tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers on the United States that we do not impose on them. This made sense after World War Two when we were rebuilding them, and even after that when we were propping them up to avoid being enslaved by the Soviets and win the Cold War.
That was over a quarter century ago.
China is now the world’s second largest economy. If the EU were a country, it would be number two. Japan is number three.
Why are we subsidizing these countries’ industries at the expense of our own workers? And not just through bad trade deals, but through allowing them to not keep their own commitments on spending for their own national defense?
Donald Trump is not starting a trade war, nor is he a protectionist.
He’s the first President in our lifetime to demand actual free trade, and to give that demand teeth.
-- Actual Free Trade originally appeared as a Facebook post by Rod D. Martin.