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Mark Stewart on Free Trade |
A: I fully support free trade. And we don't need elaborate negotiations to do free trade. The 1000+ page TPP can't possibly be free trade. There are clearly restrictions, penalties, and tit-for-tat reciprocity that serves political interests. The proper restrictions are NO restrictions. If a foreign government is subsidizing its industry and "dumping" goods on the USA, that's good for our consumers. They can't do it forever. If a foreign government is keeping US-manufactured products out, we need to "wage peace" with their citizens, that they demand the American stuff (which most foreigners love) or they will rebel.
Talk about "great deals", consumers do these great deals privately every time. Every time someone freely purchases an item, it means he obtained something valuable for a proper price OR LESS. That "consumer surplus", what a consumer would have paid but didn't have to, is the great deal that free trade gives & that Mr. Trump doesn't seem to recognize.
Now a lot of stored-up dollars abroad probably come back to purchase our stuff. So that's when our trade deficit moderates. But if it never goes to even, so what? That indicates we are rich enough to procure stuff from other nations. It incidentally helps those nations too. Free trade is what lifts societies, we should reduce almost every trade barrier we've erected.