Free trade, help consumers

Anyone who has taken an introductory economics class, purchased cheap goods made in foreign countries or witnessed the explosive job growth throughout North America – including the U.S. – after NAFTA went into effect should know that trade is a beneficial endeavor on the whole.

After all, if people and nations did not benefit from trade, they would not engage in it.
In view of the fact that trade makes people better off, I propose that President Barack Obama and Congress take the advice offered by Milton Friedman in his 1962 book “Capitalism and Freedom” and unilaterally declare free trade with all the countries of the world.

In practice, this would mean abolishing (or at least planning to quickly phase out) all of our import quotas and tariffs and all of our export subsidies along with any other restrictions that serve only to artificially protect American producers at the expense of American consumers and foreign producers.

The primary effect of this policy felt in America would be reductions in the prices and increases in the variety of a vast array of goods and services, which, as we are recovering from a severe recession and trying to stretch every dollar as far as possible, would be hugely beneficial.

More fundamentally, it would be the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, assuming that the primacy of individual rights still counts as a moral value in this country.

As Friedman put it, “There are few measures we could take that would do more to promote the cause of freedom at home and abroad.”  As usual, Friedman was dead on.

First, doing so would mean removing barriers to trade that keep American firms and consumers from being able to purchase goods from whomever they want on the terms they choose.

Second, it would mean creating a vast new export market for dozens of countries, which would lead to job growth and an attendant increase in prosperity thanks to America’s universal policy of dealing with all nations on equal terms in economic affairs.

Aside from simply helping other countries, this development would benefit the U.S. strategically by improving our international relations, a goal Obama has professed to support,  and by reducing the number and severity of security threats we face, as rising prosperity often coincides with democratization and liberalization in other areas.
Proponents of liberty and prosperity on all sides of the aisle should rally around the unilateral free trade proposal and demonstrate to the world America’s goodwill and renewed commitment to liberty.