This is what Scott Lincicome has recently observed in his policy brief (The “Protectionist Moment” That Wasn’t: American Views on Trade and Globalization). It is a mega-survey of five recent surveys (Pew; WSJ/NBC News; Gallup; Monmouth; the Chicago Council) on the American attitude toward foreign trade and globalization. Quite ironically, Lincicome finds that trade and globalization are “more popular today than at any point in recent history.” For example, Americans overwhelmingly believe that trade is good for the U.S. economy (Gallup: 70%; WSJ/ NBC News: 66%), rather than being a threat to it (Gallup: 25%; WSJ/ NBC News: 20%).
Lincicome draws two main conclusions from his mega-survey. First, the current U.S. protectionism is a perfect example of “public choice” model (“[C]oncentrated benefits and diffuse costs can push self-interested politicians into adopting polices that are actually opposed by most of the electorate.”) Second, free trade advocates may want to advertise this result (“A winning message on trade starts with the simple fact that the vast majority of Americans currently support international trade and globalization.”)
The next question: does, and will, the American public equally support the WTO?
