Free Trade Is Not the Enemy

A note to young leaders.

On tariffs, free trade and fear.

Trade is not a zero sum game. Trade is a positive sum game.

Free trade is win-win. Tariffs are lose-lose. Only fear can obscure that fact.

Ronald Reagan is rightly considered the greatest Republican US President of the 20th Century.

Here’s what he had to say about tariffs and free trade in 1988:

“We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war, for one side to win, the other must lose. But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners. And trade strengthens the free world.

Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies. We should beware of demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends – weakening our economy, our national security and the entire free world – all while cynically waving the American flag. The expansion of the international economy is not a foreign invasion; it is an American triumph, one we worked hard to achieve, and something central to our vision of a peaceful and prosperous world of freedom.”

It’s a strange spectacle to watch the party of Reagan become a pro-protection, anti-free-trade party.

By all means attack countries that restrict free trade, but it’s utterly self-defeating to attack allies with whom you’ve enjoyed decades of free trade.

Let’s hope the insanity is short-lived.