{"id":1192,"date":"2018-03-22T16:26:12","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T20:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jparnell.com\/blog\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2018-03-22T16:26:12","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T20:26:12","slug":"the-problem-with-the-trade-war-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/?p=1192","title":{"rendered":"The problem with the trade war argument"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve heard many free-traders question the wisdom of President Trump\u2019s tariffs against China. They argue that free trade benefits everyone and that tariffs elicit responses that can trigger a trade war. I don\u2019t need to be convinced that their arguments are 100% correct as far as they go, but they make 3 questionable assumptions.<\/p>\n

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  1. They assume that US tariffs would be the \u201cfirst salvo\u201d in a trade war, but this is not the case. I don\u2019t agree entirely with President Trump\u2019s public assessment of the trade situation, but trade salvos have been launched at the US for some time. Currency manipulation, intellectual property rights, requirements that US firms must secure joint ventures with domestic firms to enter the market, and competition from state-owned enterprises are but 4 examples from China. In this respect, the tariffs announced today could be viewed as a much-delayed response to unfair practices instituted years ago.<\/li>\n
  2. They assume that all nations share an equal commitment to free trade. In an ideal world, leaders in each country would be equally committed to open exchange, not just in talk, but also in practice. While we should work to reach this ideal, we must equally recognize that it\u2019s not reality. Like it or not, governments don\u2019t just get out of the way and let companies trade.<\/li>\n
  3. They assume that a \u201csomewhat free\u201d trade arrangement is acceptable, and certainly better than tariffs and other government restrictions. But the US has overlooked real trade problems for years in the interest of short-term corporate gains. This assumption is not valid in the long run. It\u2019s akin to appeasing a brutal dictator. You get might get \u201cpeace\u201d for a while, but your long-term position is compromised.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    All nations benefit from free trade, and it\u2019s my hope that all nations will come to the table to discuss the removal of barriers that protect their firms and punish outsiders. But we need action. I expect my leaders to be open to compromise, but insistent on results. I\u2019m willing to accept some international blowback from other nations if that\u2019s what it takes to get real progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I\u2019ve heard many free-traders question the wisdom of President Trump\u2019s tariffs against China. They argue that free trade benefits everyone and that tariffs elicit responses that can trigger a trade war. I don\u2019t need to be convinced that their arguments are 100% correct as far as they go, but they make 3 questionable assumptions. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}