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The Economist (October 5)

2023/ 10/ 06 by jd in Global News

If you add all the various signs up, “it becomes clear just how systematically the presumption of open markets and limited government has been left in the dust.” Free trade and other “classical liberal values are not only unpopular, they are increasingly absent from political debate.” In Washington DC, “you will be scoffed at as hopelessly naïve” for advocating free trade and, “in the emerging world, you will be painted as a neocolonial relic from the era when the West knew best.”

 

Washington Post (August 29)

2023/ 08/ 29 by jd in Global News

“Desperate political leaders of all stripes — Republican, Democratic, communist — have found a common enemy: free trade…. American political forces that are usually at odds apparently agree on the appeal of autarky — that economies should be as closed off as possible, whatever the consequences.” This seems to be part of a global phenomenon, with “nationalists and populists in other countries” also pushing “for more trade barriers. Even China, which has enriched itself through trade with other countries, is now reportedly flirting with curbing trade to demonstrate its lack of dependence on the West as its own economy falters.”

 

New York Times (June 20)

2018/ 06/ 22 by jd in Global News

“The United States should stop the scattershot, pointless nonsense on tariffs and go the other way, and hard: It should drop all tariffs, even if the rest of the world doesn’t follow.” Economists have long “understood that free trade is the best policy. Studies show that countries with freer trade have both higher per-capita incomes and faster rates of productivity growth. Economists have also long understood that barriers to trade, while pitched as a way to help domestic workers, always heavily penalize domestic consumers.”

 

Wall Street Journal (July 20)

2017/ 07/ 21 by jd in Global News

“President Trump campaigned on tearing up Nafta, but maybe he’s learning on the job. The White House this week rolled out its objectives for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement that could allow him to claim victory without doing too much protectionist damage.”

 

Financial Times (July 5)

2017/ 07/ 06 by jd in Global News

If Japan and the EU sign their free trade agreement, it “will stand as a powerful rejection of Donald Trump’s protectionist posture…. It will also highlight the challenge facing Britain. A hard Brexit would leave UK companies in some sectors on worse trade terms with their neighbour Europe than Japanese competitors halfway around the world.” There’s no shortage of irony as “the UK and the US risk being left behind — or forced to rethink their repudiation of the global order they built.”

 

The Economist (October 29)

2016/ 10/ 30 by jd in Global News

“Irredeemably dull by reputation, less brash and bellicose than America, Canada has long seemed to outsiders to be a citadel of decency, tolerance and good sense.” Especially now, “in this depressing company of wall-builders, door-slammers and drawbridge-raisers, Canada stands out as a heartening exception,” both in terms of immigration and free trade.

 

The Economist (April 2)

2016/ 04/ 03 by jd in Global News

With rising anxiety, free trade has become “a touchstone issue in America’s presidential election.” Candidates across the spectrum are stepping back from free trade, if not outright attacking it. “Freer trade was one of the engines of the prosperous decades following the second world war, in America and beyond. Yet mainstream politicians are now not only afraid to champion it, they pour fuel on the fire. That is lamentable. Free trade still deserves full-throated support, even if greater care needs to be taken of those it hurts.”

 

Bloomberg (January 26)

2016/ 01/ 27 by jd in Global News

“Why are economists so willing to declare to the world that free trade is good?” Their consensus flies in the face of popular opinion and “powerful evidence that industries and regions that have been more exposed to Chinese import competition since 2000—the year China joined the World Trade Organization—have been hit hard and have not recovered.”

 

Wall Street Journal (November 27)

2014/ 11/ 28 by jd in Global News

The free-trade agreements China recently won with South Korea and Australia serve as “a reminder that the rest of the world won’t stand still while Washington and Tokyo dither…. The U.S. and Japan need to transcend their domestic special interests and finish a Pacific trade pact if they want to compete with China for economic influence.”

 

Wall Street Journal (August 6)

2014/ 08/ 06 by jd in Global News

“Taiwan’s leaders have warned for years that economic isolation will damage the nation’s competitiveness. Now their worst fears may be coming true, and the consequences of resisting freer trade and economic reform are becoming clear.”

 

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