Trade

Trade is a key component of American economic growth. Free trade leads to innovation, wealth creation, lower prices for consumers, a dynamic and competitive economy, and more investment.

President Ronald Reagan explained the case for free trade:

The benefits of free trade are well known: It generates more jobs, a more productive use of a nation’s resources, more rapid innovation, and higher standards of living both for this nation and its trading partners. While a unilateral commitment to free trade benefits the Nation, Americans gain even more when U.S. trading partners also open their markets.

Historically economic and income growth as well as a reduction in the number of people in poverty has been best in countries that lower trade barriers and open their economies up to international competition.

What is needed now is for America to renew its commitment to free trade by granting the president ‘Fast Track’ negotiating authority, for the U.S. to pursue both trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific as well as other regional and global trade agreements, and to begin eliminating tariffs imposed on imported goods starting with anything used as a raw material by domestic manufactures including steel, sugar, and wood.