The political liabilities associated with free trade stem from the vigorous competition it promotes. Competitors who do not provide the best deal for consumers fail. Far from sugarcoating this unwelcome fact, free trade demonstrates it in no uncertain terms. Rather than looking to improve their own shortcomings, many of the losers in the competitive process seek to derail the process. They seek to ensure that they provide customers the best deal not by improving the package they provide, but by getting the government to hamper the ability of their competitors to provide a better deal.
Foreign competitors make an especially easy target for such government restrictions.
Thus, government restrictions on international trade are of a piece with domestic restrictions on competition. Indeed, by restricting trade with foreigners, governments close off an important means of mitigating the impact of their domestic restrictions. In establishing a free economic system for the United States, the Framers mandated free trade among all the states in the union. At 54 words, this was the original North American Free Trade Agreement. As we shall see, the 1994 agreement that goes by that name makes a travesty of free trade.