First, it ignores the national-security implications of free-trade policies. Transferring our national wealth to our adversaries and losing our manufacturing base makes us less safe. We can’t ignore the dire threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to America generally and our economy specifically.
Second, as Carnegie Endowment senior fellow Michael Pettis points out, the Journal’s free-trade arguments only make sense in an imaginary world where all other countries have no economic distortions. The existence of huge, persistent trade surpluses by some countries and similar deficits by us means that there are government policies causing massive distortions. Imposing tariffs will offset these countries’ unfair practices and create better outcomes for American businesses and workers.
Read the article.