Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton have all come to the same conclusion: no more nice guy when it comes to trade. Voters are convinced free trade is inimical to their interests, and even if it were a good thing our trading partners don’t play fair. They have a point. China continues to keep its markets closed to many U.S. products, and as its economy shifts from low-tech manufacturing to one based on the consumer sector, the list of goods that can be imported shrinks. In Europe, regulators are raising the costs faced by American multinationals doing business in the EU, allegedly to prevent competition-law violations and tax evasion, while the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan move to negative interest rates in (not always successful) efforts to drive down their currencies and drive up the dollar, hoping to encourage EU exports while making life more difficult for US exporters, slowing our growth rate.
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