Conversations about “trade” must encompass the national interest, broadly drawn, rather than a narrow set of economic parameters.

Like “the business of America is business,” free traderism is a model, an ideological statement of how the world ought to be—“business” or “trade” abstracted from specifics or political context. It cannot guarantee that improvements in one area make up for losses and destruction elsewhere.

When we consider the American people’s profound concern with producing, buying, selling, investing, and prospering in the world, the national interest is so much more.

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