“- the voluntary cooperation between buyers and sellers in the open and free marketplace”
That does not, and has never existed in the history of world trade.
Smithsonian “Free Trade” is but a theory, unproven as it has never existed.
The nations of the world, from time immemorial, have practiced Mercantilism. Those who did not were picked clean and ceased to exist.
You people have been brainwashed by the Leftist Keynesians.
America’s economy in the 1800’s was mainly a free market economy and practiced a great deal of free trade. As a result, the United States was not only the freest, but coming out of the 1800’s into the 1900’s, became the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.
Why are so many on the Right including some on FR confused about the sublime benefits of freedom over government command and control? Freedom and the free market aren’t perfect, but freedom is WAY ahead of whatever’s in second place.