Posted on 08/12/2019 5:54:52 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The United States is not doing enough to promote free trade and the elimination of trade barriers around the world. In fact, it’s doing just the opposite and imposing barriers on billions of dollars’ worth of imports.
As a result, new trade restrictions implemented by World Trade Organization member countries have reached historic highs.
Over the last two review periods, new trade restrictions totaled $588.3 billion and $339.5 billion, respectively. For the previous two periods, new trade restrictions totaled roughly $100 billion or less.
The latest figures present a worrisome and unpredictable climate that is harming the overall health of world trade.
World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevêdo responded to these figures by stating: “The message of the report before us is very serious. These actions have real economic effects, and the alarm bells are already sounding.”
At the same time, Azevêdo encouraged nations to resolve tensions that were negatively affecting trade growth around the world.
World Trade Organization nations in the last period applied 38 new restrictions. For the period covering most of 2018, the number of new restrictive measures imposed outpaced the number of barriers eliminated.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
Remember it wasn’t so long ago Democrats were all for the trade policies being promoted by the president. Selling out America to globalist entities fills these globalist traders pockets more than defending American industry and the country’s blue collar workers!
Partisan Media Shills update.
Free Trade is a myth.
That’s the same nonsense the globalists have been feeding the American public for decades, and it’s a critical part of what resulted in hundreds of billions in US trade deficits and lost plants and jobs to China and many others.
We tried leading by example and nobody followed.
It’s long past time we looked out for ourselves.
We should have free trade with a thug regime currently planning to do the Hong Kong what they did to Tiananmen Square?
This is a bullroar article. Trump has mentioned on numerous occasions that he champions FAIR trade. And he will use tariffs to battle the protectionist tariffs imposed by the EU, China, and even India. Free Trade is the most common shibboleth employed by liberals to camouflage the paucity of an argument.
I don’t think Free Trade is so much a myth as is the idea that you can get there by not applying some sort of pressure on mercantilist trading partners, such as blizzarding the WTO with complaints or using leverage with the 1964 Trade Adjustment Act as Trump is doing.
A country with insane free trade import policy and tariffs in a world practicing universal mercantilism is soon to be an agrarian nation.
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