Why do we have to go through this over and over again? Every time America seems to be losing jobs abroad, the same arguments keep coming up about free trade-like how it costs Americans their jobs and how it just creates a race to the bottom in terms of wages.
Do liberals ever realize who will be devastated by protectionism or \fair trade"" (which can take the form of tariffs or quotas on imports) in any form? It is not going to be fat cats. It is not even going to be the American worker. It is going to be the third-world countries that depend on America as their main export market.
The New York Times ran an editorial this week about the sugar industry. The U.S. has carried out a policy of keeping the price of sugar three times that of the world market by limiting the production here. The major players in the industry are the Fanjul brothers, who have donated to both political parties and have clamored to keep sugar off the table in any future trade negotiations. Besides engaging in shady campaign contributions, the Fanjul brothers' farms have been instrumental in polluting the Everglades, and now they do not want to foot the bill. This is what protectionism brings: vested interests that corrupt our political process.
Most liberals argue free trade is what companies are clamoring for, but it is just the reverse. The steel industry complained and earned tariffs, which have thankfully been declared illegal by the World Trade Organization. The industrial-scale farms have been the subtle beneficiaries of the farm bill that is supposed to help the smallest farmer. The companies are asking for nothing but protectionism.
These companies want the United States to remain closed to competition from much cheaper goods. What is sad is that they may just win. This is not an anomaly. If one can remember when American car companies were asking for help from Japanese companies, they did win. But what was the outcome? American automobile jobs were subsidized at the price of $170,000, and when the car industry bounced back, the car executives gave themselves huge bonuses.
Sure, maybe the U.S. saved some jobs, but at what price, and who really profited? So before you accept the protectionist argument, ask yourself: who will really benefit? In many economic issues, good intentions can have bad unintended consequences.
