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Full text at: upload.democraticunderground.com

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Here in America, as we reflect on the many things we have to be grateful for, we should take a moment to recognize that one of the key factors behind our nation's great prosperity is the open trade policy that allows the American people to freely exchange goods and services with free people around the world. The freedom to trade is not a new issue for America. In 1776 our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, charging the British with a number of offenses, among them, and I quote, "cutting off our trade with all parts of the world..."

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America's most recent experiment with protectionism was a disaster for the working men and women of this country. When Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley tariff in 1930, we were told that it would protect America from foreign competition and save jobs in this country - the same line we hear today. The actual result was the Great Depression, the worst economic catastrophe in our history; one out of four Americans were thrown out of work. Two years later, when I cast my first ballot for President, I voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who opposed protectionism and called for the repeal of that disastrous tariff.

Ever since that time, the American people have stayed true to our heritage by rejecting the siren song of protectionism. In recent years, the trade deficit led some misguided politicians to call for protectionism, warning that otherwise we would lose jobs. But they were wrong again. In fact, the United States not only didn't lose jobs, we created more jobs than all the countries of Western Europe, Canada, and Japan combined. The record is clear that when America's total trade has increased, American jobs have also increased. And when our total trade has declined, so have the number of jobs.

Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words. 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 helps strengthen the free world.

Yet today protectionism is being used by some American politicians as a cheap form of nationalism, a fig leaf for those unwilling to maintain America's military strength and who lack the resolve to stand up to real enemies - countries that would use violence against us or our allies. Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies. We should beware of the demagogs 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.

After the Second World War, America led the way to dismantle trade barriers and create a world trading system that set the stage for decades of unparalleled economic growth. ... We want to open more markets for our products, to see to it that all nations play by the rules, and to seek improvement in such areas as dispute resolution and agriculture. We also want to bring the benefits of free trade to new areas, including services, investment, and the protection of intellectual property. ...

Yes, back in 1776, our Founding Fathers believed that free trade was worth fighting for. And we can celebrate their victory because today trade is at the core of the alliance that secure the peace and guarantee our freedom; it is the source of our prosperity and the path to an even brighter future for America.
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www.yahoo.com - How Trump wins from his damaging trade wars - YFin, 2024-02-09

|------- The former president promised to boost American manufacturing through import tariffs and other protectionist measures, and it didn't work. Yet the voters Trump was appealing to rewarded him anyway, according to a new study by prominent trade economists. That may explain why Trump now says he'll intensify his trade wars if elected to a second term.

... Trump's first trade war helps explain why. The study, by economists David Autor, Anne Beck, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson, found that Trump's China tariffs did more harm than good to the US economy. Yet they boosted political support for Trump in key parts of the country. Whether through Trump's hucksterism or some other machination, voters seemingly embraced a policy that helped nobody and hurt some.

The study has three conclusions: First, the Trump tariffs produced no boost in manufacturing employment. Second, China's retaliatory tariffs reduced US agricultural employment. Third, Trump's farm bailout helped offset some, but not all, of the job losses in agriculture.

The Tax Foundation, for instance, finds that Trump's tariffs lowered US employment by 166,000 US jobs, with retaliatory tariffs killing another 29,000. The higher taxes paid by importers, meanwhile, amount to $74 billion in increased government revenue over a decade. Contrary to Trump's insistence, however, it's not China paying those higher taxes. It's American firms that import the products, pay the tax and pass the higher costs onto consumers.

The tariffs worked to Trump's advantage anyway.

... "The trade war appears to have been successful in strengthening support for the Republican party," the study concludes. "Residents of tariff-protected locations became less likely to identify as Democrats and more likely to vote for President Trump. Voters appear to have responded favorably to the extension of tariff protections to local industries despite their economic cost."

... The Autor study proposes two possible reasons Trump gained politically from tariffs that didn't really help anybody. The first is that "voters were misinformed about the employment impacts of the trade war." Trump certainly did his best to misinform voters. He called the two-way tariff escalation an "amazing deal" and a "momentous step" and repeatedly bragged about a manufacturing resurgence that never happened.

... Or, Trump made a deliberate and cynical show of trying to help, knowing it wouldn't matter. Sometimes, telling voters what they want to hear might be enough.
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Because of general economic illiteracy and the allure of fake populism, often [both] parties choose "good politics / bad policy" over "good policy / bad politics."
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