But just because the Trans Pacific Partnership deal may be dead for now doesn’t mean it won’t be back in modified form. In any case, as I noted earlier this month in Mises Daily, we need real free trade, not the latest global deal for state-controlled trade and regulation:
Full-blown free trade is about total decentralization in trade policy. In a country that enjoys free trade — that is, a country that has implemented unilateral free trade — it is fully up to the individual consumer and entrepreneur as to whether or not he wishes to do business with foreign suppliers. Under such a system, a baker who must buy delivery trucks and flour for his business can choose whether or not he will obtain his supplies from foreign or domestic suppliers. In most cases, he will choose the most economical option, and the marketplace will reflect this reality.
Trade agreements like the TPP and NAFTA, on the other hand, leave these decisions not up to individual citizens, but to government regulators and negotiators who make decisions in the interest of the state and its favored special interests.
