Trump's Totally Free Trade Idea Is Really Smart

[EasyAce]

It's a damned shame that he doesn't seem to really believe in it
By Ronald Bailey
http://reason.com/blog/2018/06/12/trumps-totally-free-trade-idea-is-really

At the G-7 summit meeting in Quebec, President Donald Trump reportedly suggested the idea of totally free trade to the leaders of Canada, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. "Ultimately that's what you want, you want tariff free, no barriers, and you want no subsides because you have some countries subsidizing industries and that's not fair," Trump said. "So you go tariff free, you go barrier free, you go subsidy free, that's the way you learned at the Wharton School of Finance." Let's call that insight waging trade peace.

Well, hooray! Tariffs and other trade barriers are taxes on consumers and protections for the profits of uncompetitive corporations. So how high are tariffs now? According to the World Bank, U.S. tariffs applied to all products average about 1.6 percent. That happens to be the identical rate for Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Japan's average is 1.3 percent and Canada's is the lowest at 0.8 percent. In other words, we and our allies are well down the path toward totally free trade . . .

. . . Eliminating tariffs, quotas, and subsidies would hugely benefit consumers not only in the U.S. but around the world . . . The evidence is conclusive that the U.S. loses hugely if the president launches a trade war and wins big if he chooses instead to wage trade peace.