One of the things that you see when you read Project 2025 is not just the racist dog whistles, but some ideas that were exactly lifted from some of the most extreme white supremacists ever.
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The Case for Free Trade
for which it is not suited. The next Administration needs to end the mission creep that has all but taken over trade policy in recent years.
Trade policy works best when it sticks to trade and treats separate issues separately. Trade agreements since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have been increasingly burdened by trade-unrelated provisions involving labor, environmental, intellectual property, and other regulations. Where these were a side agreement to NAFTA in the 1990s, they were integrated into the main text of the United States-Mexico—Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2019. The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (PEF) that the Biden Administration is currently pursuing consists entirely of trade-unrelated provisions: Negotiations are steering clear of trade altogether.
Trade-unrelated provisions are routinely hijacked by progressives and rent-seekers and dilute otherwise worthwhile trade agreements. They also create additional points of contention that make agreements unnecessarily difficult to pass. A conservative trade policy should limit trade-unrelated provisions in trade agreements.
This does not mean that conservatives should ignore international negotiations on labor, environment, intellectual property, and other non-trade issues. It means they are more likely to succeed by treating each of them separately rather than letting them die in committee with each providing an additional sticking point for delaying the others.
Aconservative trade policy must also take seriously the reality that in a democracy, the other side holds power about half of the time, but progressives run most agencies almost all of the time. A cardinal rule in public policy is not to give yourself powers you wouldn’t want your opponents to have. That means building institution-level safeguards against mission creep to limit abuses.
Foreign policy considerations are not as separate from trade as are labor or environmental standards. China deserves special consideration, as does the World Trade Organization (WTO) along with its possible successors or alternatives. While trade is not the star of American foreign policy, it does play a supporting role. It should be used to strengthen alliances to help counter China, Russia, and other threats while making economic and cultural inroads inside them. The next American President should use this aspect of trade to the nation’s advantage.
Drawing from America’s Roots. In 1776, nearly 90 percent of Americans were farmers. For 10 people to eat, nine had to farm. That meant fewer people could be factory workers, doctors, or teachers, or even live in cities, because they were needed on the farm. Accordingly, life expectancy was around 40 years, and literacy was 13 percent.”
Today, fewer than 1 percent of Americans work on farms, yet America is a net exporter of food. People have infinite wants, so as rising productivity pushed some people off of farms, there were countless other jobs they could do. In true American fashion, many of these jobs were in brand new industries.