Acknowledging the Arguments Against Free Trade

I am a fairly hardcore free-trader; sometime, I’m afraid, just reflexively so. I think, however, that it may be time to re-examine my position, and be more careful about judging each trade proposal on its own merits.

I was impressed by this article by David Frum in The Atlantic, which is predominately pro-trade (and, more specifically, pro-TPP), but it ends with this cautionary note that I think free-traders such as myself should take heed of:

Trade is a pro-growth policy. But when the proceeds of growth are not widely shared, and not perceived as widely shared, it becomes difficult to sustain the consensus in favor of pro-growth measures—especially when those measures seem to impose costs on American workers.