“It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy . . . . If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some advantage.”
-Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776
IPI believes the United States should aggressively pursue trade liberalization, which includes a willingness to lower our own trade barriers even when other countries do not respond reciprocally. Ideally, those efforts include multilateral agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but bilateral agreements can also promote freer trade.
American consumers bear the brunt of the protectionist impulse through higher prices on consumer goods, and American workers are best served when liberalized trade policies facilitate the export of American products throughout the world. At a time when protectionist sentiments are growing, it is important to assert that the U.S. and its workers have nothing to fear from trade, and everything to gain.
Lifting Energy Export Ban Fuels Our Economy
What could turn out to be President Obama's most effective economic policies only happened in the twilight of his presidency: ending the 40-year ban on U.S. crude oil exports and approving construction of terminals to export U.S. liquefied natural gas.
Obama's Surprise Economic Legacy: Energy Exports
President Obama’s most important economic legacy has come at the end of his eight-year term. By ending the 40-year ban on U.S. crude oil exports and permitting the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the U.S. is on its way to becoming an energy exporting powerhouse, says a new IPI publication.
Native Americans Condemn the Dakota Pipeline, the Law Doesn't
Raising concerns about threats to Indian historic sites is simply a tactic the Left is using to achieve its larger goal: ending the use of fossil fuels. It successfully employed similar tactics when fighting the Keystone XL pipeline.
Hillary Clinton Wants to Dictate Who You Buy From
Trade protectionism is a type of nepotism, because its people of power or influence trying to protect favored industries or unions from the impact of competition.
Trade Protectionism Is Crony Capitalism
If you oppose crony capitalism, and you should, then you should also oppose trade protectionism.
Trump Very Wrong About Trade
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are proposing the most protectionist, anti-trade policies we’ve heard since President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930.
Responding To Trump's Spasm of Protectionism
Donald Trump’s anti-free-trade bloviating of late might give the impression the whole party has lost its bearings on this economic issue. Fortunately, like so much else, Trump doesn’t talk for Republicans.
Scholar Debunks Trump's Trade Speech
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s trade policy speech this week was misleading on the actual state of U.S. trade, a scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation said in a Rare op-ed published on Friday.
Donald Trump's Speech On Trade Was Packed With Misleading Nonsense
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are proposing the most protectionist, anti-trade policies we’ve heard since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Trump recently delivered a speech intended to demonstrate his grasp of trade policy, so it’s worth fact-checking some of his comments.
Trade Is Good and Normal
Free trade between people who specialize in different things is the natural state of affairs. Trade agreements provide the rules and remedies should one party try to take advantage of the other. We thought these things were obvious, but apparently not.
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