Free trade makes the nation and its citizens more prosperous. Free trade enables us to buy better goods at lower costs. Scarce capital is invested in higher value-added goods. Free trade encourages investment in cutting-edge goods. Free trade stimulates national productivity, the true measure of the prosperity of the country. The United States is better off economically and politically if it devotes resources and investment to advanced semiconductors and not to manufacturing washing machines, for example. Such is the law of comparative advantage.

History also teaches an important lesson.