Bastiat versus Trump: opposition to free trade rests upon errors, or, if you prefer, upon half-truths.
"Debunking Protectionist Myths: Free Trade, the Developing World, and Prosperity" Cato Institute Economic Development Bulletin, No.31, Forthcoming ARVIND PANAGARIYA , University of Maryland - Department of Economics, Columbia University Email: panagari@econ.umd.edu More than 170 years ago, Frédéric Bastiat noted in his masterly work Economic Sophisms that the “opposition to free trade rests upon errors, or, if you prefer, upon half-truths.”1 Ever since Adam Smith successfully replaced mercantilist orthodoxy with free trade doctrine in his celebrated book The Wealth of Nations, free trade critics have repeatedly challenged the doctrine, offering half-truths to bolster their case. In each instance, free trade advocates have successfully exposed the falsehood of arguments made by critics. Although free trade has gained increasing acceptance among policymakers over time, challenges to it have remained omnipresent. The latest of these challenges has manifested itself ...