Policymakers must be constantly reminded of the benefits of free trade and the costs of protectionism. Free trade is the extension of free markets across political borders. Enlarging markets to integrate more buyers, sellers, investors and workers enables more refined specialization and economies of scales, which produce more wealth and higher living standards. Protectionism does just the opposite. Congress and the administration should pursue policies that expand the freedom of Americans to participate in the international marketplace.
Trade Policy
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Manufactured Crisis: “Deindustrialization,” Free Markets, and National Security
Expansive new security nationalism proposals warrant extreme skepticism, and market‐oriented policies should be prioritized.
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The Pandemic Does Not Demand Government Micromanagement of Global Supply Chains
Evidence and analysis refute current arguments that economic nationalism would bolster the U.S. industrial base (and thus national resiliency). Instead, American protectionism has been repeatedly found to weaken the U.S. manufacturing sector and the economy more broadly.
The Danger of Blindly Navigating Data Nationalism
Digital trade and the flow of digital information are certain to grow in prominence in the future. The coronavirus pandemic has pushed their growth curve along.
Tariffs (That Biden Won’t Remove) Threaten the U.S. Manufacturing Recovery (That Biden Wants)
Tariffs not only impose immense economic costs but also fail to achieve their primary policy aims and foster political dysfunction along the way.
China’s Technological Predation Threatens U.S. Security
Primacy in the next generation of technology could lock in advantages with very serious security implications for years and decades to come.
Trade Policy Priorities through the Eyes of Congressional Democrats
What are the Democrats’ wishes for U.S. trade policy? What obstacles do they foresee? Are they willing and able to remind Americans, once again, why being for trade is in their best interest and why being against trade is not?
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Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies
The purpose of exchange is to enable each of us to focus our productive efforts on what we do best. By specializing in an occupation — instead of allocating small portions of our time to the impossible task of producing each of the necessities and luxuries we wish to consume — and exchanging the monetized output we produce most efficiently for the goods and services we produce less efficiently, we are able to produce and consume more output than would be the case in the absence of specialization and trade. The larger the size of the market, the greater is the scope for specialization, exchange, and economic growth.
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Cato Project on Jones Act Reform
The Cato Institute aims to shake up this status quo by shining a spotlight on the Jones Act’s myriad negative impacts and exposing its alleged benefits as entirely hollow. By systematically laying bare the truth about this nearly 100 year old failed law, the Cato Institute Project on Jones Act Reform is meant to raise public awareness and lay the groundwork for its repeal or reform.