Why Economists Are Worried About International Trade<br />Even if Portugal was better than England at producing both wine<br />and cloth, if Portugal had a larger advantage in wine production, Portugal should export wine and import cloth.<br />But in light of the growing evidence of the Trump administration’s apparent disdain for free trade, from the recent tariffs, to a report recommending fresh quotas or tariffs on steel<br />and aluminum, to its earlier rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it may be worth reviewing the theory, as well as the evidence that convinces economists that the theory is right.<br />His answer was that trade depends on comparative advantage — how good a nation<br />is at producing one thing relative to how good it is at producing another.<br />Similarly, nations should specialize in producing what they do best and freely trade with other nations to satisfy their consumption needs.<br />When President Trump imposed tariffs on imported solar panels<br />and washing machines, I was reminded of a line from George Orwell: “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”<br />While Orwell’s comment was focused on military and political issues of the late 1930s, my subject is economics,<br />and to most people in my field, the benefits of an unfettered system of world trade are obvious.<br />Similarly, landlocked nations are disadvantaged compared with nations with their own seaports.
