President Reagan makes the case for Free Trade
Here is a superb speech which President Ronald Reagan made in 1988 making the case for free trade.
It was broadcast thirty years ago and yet every word is relevant today - in fact, it is incredibly prescient in that it could have been written to systematically demolish the ridiculous arguments made for higher tariffs by his present-day successor in the White House.
I particularly like the passages where he says that "Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words. We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war for one side to win, the other must lose.
But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners and trade helps strengthen the free world."
"Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies. They are our allies."
I can remember that when Reagan was standing for election and indeed for some time afterwards the same sort of people who more recently presented Donald Trump as a dangerous moron were making exactly the same sort of charge against Ronald Reagan.
Every government makes mistakes, but looking back on the legacy of the Reagan era he looks more and more like a great man and one of the best ever US presidents as time passes, particularly in comparison with most of his successors of both parties.
Perhaps, as Bill Maher recognised too late, because the opponents of Ronald Reagan, John McCain, Mitt Romney and George W Bush cried wolf, presenting them as evil idiots who would bring the end of the world, when in Maher's words "they were honourable men who we disagreed with, and we should have kept it that way" they made it easier for a US president to be elected who really is many of the things which they wrongly accused people like Ronald Reagan of being.
If you are tempted by the idea that we should approach trade using the language of conflict, listen to what the Great Communicator had to say about it.
It was broadcast thirty years ago and yet every word is relevant today - in fact, it is incredibly prescient in that it could have been written to systematically demolish the ridiculous arguments made for higher tariffs by his present-day successor in the White House.
I particularly like the passages where he says that "Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words. We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war for one side to win, the other must lose.
But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners and trade helps strengthen the free world."
"Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies. They are our allies."
I can remember that when Reagan was standing for election and indeed for some time afterwards the same sort of people who more recently presented Donald Trump as a dangerous moron were making exactly the same sort of charge against Ronald Reagan.
Every government makes mistakes, but looking back on the legacy of the Reagan era he looks more and more like a great man and one of the best ever US presidents as time passes, particularly in comparison with most of his successors of both parties.
Perhaps, as Bill Maher recognised too late, because the opponents of Ronald Reagan, John McCain, Mitt Romney and George W Bush cried wolf, presenting them as evil idiots who would bring the end of the world, when in Maher's words "they were honourable men who we disagreed with, and we should have kept it that way" they made it easier for a US president to be elected who really is many of the things which they wrongly accused people like Ronald Reagan of being.
If you are tempted by the idea that we should approach trade using the language of conflict, listen to what the Great Communicator had to say about it.
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