Global Trade Is Good For Small-Town Manufacturers
Reason magazine|December 2017

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is nothing if not a protectionist.

Christian Britschgi
Global Trade Is Good For Small-Town Manufacturers

He has promised time and again to tear up trade deals and build barriers against foreign people and products. Usually, he frames it as a defense of American manufacturers and the workers they employ.

“I have visited cities and towns across this country where one-third or even half of manufacturing jobs have been wiped out in the last 20 years,” the then–presidential candidate said in one typical campaign address. “We import nearly $800 billion more in goods than we export. We can’t continue to do that.”

But if the president goes through with his threats to raise the barriers to international trade, American companies will pay the price.

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