Reply #49: First, It's a very different world now [View All]

Second, you are making the assumption that changing our trade policies, like ending NAFTA, would hurt us.

"foreign governments moved to increase rates against American products"

Foreign government are putting us at a disadvantage now. Back then, the foreign governments had the sense to do what's in their best interest. Now, the US practices "free trade" while other countries do things that benefit their country, companies, and citizens. For example, Japan doesn't allow our automakers to build factories in their country and also has high import taxes. This give Japanese automakers a big advantage at home and allows them to subsidize their North American operations.

My main point is that "free trade" is not really free trade. If our government officials were smart enough, they would require other countries to treat our companies the same as we do theirs or alter our trade policies. The idea that putting our country on equal economic footing as our foreign trading partners would lead to economic ruin is absurd.