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LEVEL 1 - 6 OF 7 STORIES
Copyright 1993 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
The Plain Dealer
June 25, 1993 Friday, FINAL / ALL
SECTION: EDITORIALS & FORUM; Pg. 4B
LENGTH: 431 words
HEADLINE: INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE NOT A REALITY YET, BUT STILL AN IDEAL
BYLINE: By LEONARD W. MARTIN
DATELINE: CLEVELAND
BODY:
Walter Russell Mead's assertions, distortions and misunderstandings about
economists and economics (May 30) hardly deserve response.
However, his strangely worded allegation that achieving international free
trade for all is a myth or falsehood must be rejoined. That the ideal has not
been completely achieved does not prove that free trade fails to provide
mutual benefits to its participants. He simply fulminates against GATT and
NAFTA, alleging trade management and constraints on labor. In his further tirade
against laissez-faire capitalism, he claims that George Washington, Alexander
Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were
protectionists.
The post-World War I experience with protectionism was hardly beneficial.
Our own participation, as we failed to appreciate our sudden emergence as the
world's leading creditor and economic power, culminated in the Smoot-Hawley
tariff, which precipitated a colossal depression just as the protectionism
generally contributed to a World War II in 20 years.
In contrast our post-World War II free-trade leadership, up to now, has
achieved widespread prosperity and nearly 50 years without the recurrence of
world war. The successive agreements have not eliminated all barriers to trade,
else the first round might have sufficed. But each round has further reduced
trade barriers with ensuing increases in world trade that have exceeded
expectations - even of economists - and have benefited all or almost all.
Exceptions, if any, can be explained by economic and/or political analysis.
The leaders of the American Revolution first opposed the protectionism of the
mercantile system. Next,when protectionism appeared under the Articles of
Confederation, these leaders responded with a Constitution that gave us a
nationwide free market, raising us from an embryonic nation to the world's
leader in 125 years. Call this laissez-faire capitalism if you will, the poor
came from many parts of the world and still do, notwithstanding the artificial
barriers of immigration laws sponsored by organized labor.
Hamilton, and perhaps others, sought tariff protection for our infant
manufacturing industries. Evidently, Mead does not know that protection for
truly infant industries is a valid economic exception to the several arguments
against tariffs.
It would be sad, indeed, if nihilists like Mead mislead people to prefer
protectionism and collectivism, or even the practice of muddled empiricism, to
the pursuit of the ideals or theories of free trade and capitalism.
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