Lou Dobbs says, “America can no longer afford the price of “free” trade.” In addition, he says:
Most Americans would like to support domestic manufacturers by buying U.S.-made products, but chances are that most of us own goods made predominantly outside the United States. Wal-Mart alone imported $12 billion in goods last year from China. Seventy-six percent of consumers who look for U.S.-made products say that they have a hard time finding them, and the reason for this is simple: We’ve given away our manufacturing base through “free” trade. In 1951, the average U.S. trade tariff was approximately 15 percent. By 1979 the average industrial tariff had sunk to 5.7 percent, and now it is just under 3 percent. Most foreign importers enjoy nearly unrestricted access to the U.S. marketplace. As a result, Americans have become the world’s greatest customers, with the country accumulating a trade deficit every year since 1976.
And of course, you can never refer to the “horrors” of free trade without mentioning Wal-Mart and/or China. It continues to amaze and amuse me that these guys think this is a problem: lower tariffs, cheaper goods, comparative advantage, and heaven forbid, a “trade deficit.”
