Protectionism

Download or read book What's Wrong with Protectionism written by Pierre Lemieux and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-08-27 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Putting tariffs on imported goods or setting other barriers to international trade can be tempting for politicians. They assume that many of their constituents believe that free trade is not fair trade and that other countries aren’t playing by the rules. This belief makes it easy for industry leaders to demand protection for their businesses and their workers—to “put America first.” But Americans should resist the siren calls of protectionism. In this highly relevant protectionism primer, Pierre Lemieux shows what can happen if they don’t. As the author demonstrates, trade between any two countries is fair for the same reasons as exchange between two individuals: it is to the benefit of both. Lemieux carefully refutes the arguments of those who would curtail Americans’ access to the benefits of international commerce—from the claim that we can boost economic growth by reducing imports to the belief that free trade leads to “shipping jobs overseas.” Yes, manufacturing jobs are declining in this country and have been since the 1950s. But, as Lemieux points out, that’s in large part because Americans are making more advanced products more efficiently—that’s our comparative advantage. And this is happening as less-developed countries are producing more labor-intensive, low-tech goods—that’s their comparative advantage. All parties to a trade benefit. Lemieux shows how free trade improves the lives of American consumers, especially the poor. The narrow agenda of the protectionists—to protect a small minority of producers at the expense of millions of their fellow Americans—is the wrong path for an increasingly diverse and complex economy. This concise primer shows you why.

Download or read book Protectionism written by Jagdish N. Bhagwati and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Through a combination of text, quotations, cartoons, tables, charts, and graphs, Bhagwati ... looks at the forces for and against protection."--Jacket.

Download or read book Peddling Protectionism written by Douglas A. Irwin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of America's most infamous tariff The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, which raised U.S. duties on hundreds of imported goods to record levels, is America's most infamous trade law. It is often associated with—and sometimes blamed for—the onset of the Great Depression, the collapse of world trade, and the global spread of protectionism in the 1930s. Even today, the ghosts of congressmen Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley haunt anyone arguing for higher trade barriers; almost single-handedly, they made protectionism an insult rather than a compliment. In Peddling Protectionism, Douglas Irwin provides the first comprehensive history of the causes and effects of this notorious measure, explaining why it largely deserves its reputation for combining bad politics and bad economics and harming the U.S. and world economies during the Depression. In four brief, clear chapters, Irwin presents an authoritative account of the politics behind Smoot-Hawley, its economic consequences, the foreign reaction it provoked, and its aftermath and legacy. Starting as a Republican ploy to win the farm vote in the 1928 election by increasing duties on agricultural imports, the tariff quickly grew into a logrolling, pork barrel free-for-all in which duties were increased all around, regardless of the interests of consumers and exporters. After Herbert Hoover signed the bill, U.S. imports fell sharply and other countries retaliated by increasing tariffs on American goods, leading U.S. exports to shrivel as well. While Smoot-Hawley was hardly responsible for the Great Depression, Irwin argues, it contributed to a decline in world trade and provoked discrimination against U.S. exports that lasted decades. Peddling Protectionism tells a fascinating story filled with valuable lessons for trade policy today.

Download or read book Resisting Protectionism written by Helen V. Milner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Milner explores the similarities between the economic conditions of the 1920s and the 1970s, where both Western Europe and the U.S. had high unemploymnet rates and sizeable agricultural and industrial overcapacity. She draws on evidence from six U.S. industries in the 1920s, six U.S. firms in the 1970s, and six French industries in the 1970s, and concludes that in the 1970s both nations had corporations with international market interests than they had in the 1920s. She believes that in modern industrial nations, the corporate sector plays an important role in policy determination, and that any move toward protectionism would be at the behest of large corporations with international interests. ISBN 0-691-05670-6: $29.50.

Download or read book Remaking U.S. Trade Policy written by Nitsan Chorev and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chorev focuses on trade liberalization in the United States from the 1930s to the present as she explores the political origins of today's global economy.

Download or read book The Limits Of Protectionism written by Michael Lusztig and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conventional wisdom holds that free trade is economically beneficial to nations. But this does not prevent industries and interest groups from lobbying their governments for protection, which creates a fear of electoral backlash among politicians hoping to promote free trade. The Limits of Protectionism demonstrates how governments can attain those economic benefits while avoiding the political costs.Michael Lusztig's theoretical model focuses on a process by which protectionists can be pushed to restructure and compete in a global economy. In this process, a small cutback in domestic protection leads to lost market shares at home; producers must then turn to overseas exports, and, as the size of foreign profits grow, former protectionists become active advocates for more and greater free trade opportunities.In a wide-ranging array of case studies—from nineteenth-century Britain to Depression-era United States to contemporary New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, and Mexico—Lusztig reveals that, if skillfully handled, governments can eliminate the obstacles to free trade and enjoy continued economic growth without fear of protectionist groups seeking revenge at the ballot box.

Download or read book William McKinley, Apostle of Protectionism written by Quentin R. Skrabec and published by Algora Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography, focused on McKinley''s unusual view of protectionism, a labor-business alliance, and American exceptionalism, offers striking parallels to today as the US struggles to define its international role and to determine the best blend of free trade, protectionism, and immigration. William McKinley was the first US president to address globalization; his legacy in protectionism and immigrant labor offer lessons for the current era. He orchestrated an alliance between big business and the American worker that ushered in one of the greatest periods of growth ever known in the US economy. Yet McKinley has been in the shadow of his successor Theodore Roosevelt for over a hundred years. As Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, McKinley had forged a tariff bill in 1888 that united a nation that was still divided between North and South, East and West. His continued efforts to support free trade, protected by managed markets in the tradition of Henry Clay, and worker benefits like those provide by George Westinghouse, led to a great economic compromise. Further, with revolutionary, visionary rhetoric laden with America''s economic manifest destiny he appealed to everyone from the steelworkers of Pittsburgh to the New York bankers. He articulated a uniting philosophy: Free trade in the United States is founded upon a community of equalities and reciprocities...[F]ree foreign trade admits the foreigner to equal privileges with our citizens. It invites the product of foreign cheap labor to this market in competition with the domestic, representing better paid labor [albeit with tariffs to protect that domestic product]. McKinley''s vision built the industrial base of the nation. By the end of his presidency the American steel, glass, rubber, oil, machinery and electrical appliance industries dominated the world. He was one of America''s most popular presidents. As his funeral train crossed the nation in 1901, factory workers and captains of industry alike stood along the rails to mourn him. Never since has such a political alliance between labor and management been forged. He was the last president to build a voting alliance between laborers, immigrant workers, and capitalists. That alliance was marred by famous labor strikes and the building of great trusts, yet he still managed to sweep the labor votes in the great industrial centers due to his belief in reciprocity and protectionism. McKinley''s role as a dinner pail Republican offers insights into how America can approach today''s globalization with the best interests of the home team in mind.