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"Isn't fighting for truly free trade "getting tough"?"

No, it's the ranting of a mindless idiot. The concept of "free trade" is that which profits off of the back of the American employer or employee. What the hell do you think the UN, Kyoto and the Democratic party are? If you think "free trade" will exist in our lifetime, under the concept of the left, then you are correct. If you think FAIR TRADE will, not in my life time. We've been sold out. But don't tell me. Go to Wilson, NC, San Jose, CA, or Brownsville, TX. Tell the poor SOBs who live there TO THEIR FACE that you advocate these policies. When they take you out of the hospital in one of those towns, come back to us and let us know what you think.

When we enacted the concepts of "free trade" we did nothing, absolutely nothing to let our industries have a level playing field. Did we reduce regulations? No, we increased them. Were there tax incentives for domestic producers? No, we gave incentives to relocate manufacturing overseas under the guise of the Import-Export Bank. I'm sick and tired of the people on this board proclaiming free trade instead of FAIR TRADE. 80 years ago, the income tax was 1% and the government funded off of the import tariffs. No we have sold our souls and stripped our entreprenuers of the ability to compete domestically because of federal, state and local taxes and regulation. If that is your idea of "free trade" then you are a moron. Just like the 466 idiots who run our nation in D.C.

Isn't fighting for truly free trade "getting tough"?

That is only part of the battle.

If you truly believe in Adam Smith Capitalism, then you'll have to admit that nobody ever pictured *capital* going somewhere else, setting up shop, and taking advantage of *free trade* to send things back.

Given that most third-world countries want to build from within a tariff wall, they should be permitted to do so. However, every one of their trading partners MUST realize that and respond with "fair trade" as opposed to "free trade" being one-way only.

Fair trade to me is a tit-for-tat tariff barrier on an entire country. If China can make widgets better than we can, so be it. BUT, if China is making the same widgets and then charging a 50% tariff on *my* widgets to destroy my access to their market, my Government is doing evil by not responding in kind and is actually *penalizing* me by subsidizing the competition with a so-called "Free Trade" deal, which we know is only one-way.

That is the problem. Level the playing field and make other countries who want to compete face what they do themselves. THAT will go a long way to truly free trade where countries that have competitive advantages will rule in their area.

Until that day, watch your customers shrink, because the overseas guy in your 'global market' makes 1/10 what the guy down the street who *was* your customer makes now....but now the overseas guy has your neighbor's job and STILL can't afford your product.