U.S. Trade Politics

Here's an argument from Daniel Koffler that he is: Whereas Clinton has recently taken to pulling protectionist stunts and rethinking the fundamental theoretical soundness of free trade, and Edwards is behaving like the love child of Huey Long and Pat Buchanan, Obama instinctively supports free trade and grasps

The U.S. Presidential campaign is getting somewhat heated on the Democratic side, and the acrimony seems to have spilled into trade policy: On trade [Barack Obama] also criticized her for saying one thing and taking another position when she decided to run for the presidency. “Because only in Washington

The Republican candidates were debating in Florida last night. In response to a question about tax cutting, Governor Huckabee said the following: But let me speak to the really heart of what I think a lot of Americans are concerned about with the economy. And frankly, in talking about the

Over at Eyes on Trade, Holly Shulman has a great post about a conference in which several of the Presidential candidates' economic advisers talked about their views on economic issues.   She "loosely transcribed" what they said on trade.  Here are some snippets (there is more at her

Via Dani Rodrik, Mitt Romney said the following while campaigning in Michigan: “Here in Michigan, the skies are cloudy all day, the trees are all the right height, people talk without an accent and most of the cars on the road are American made — as they ought to be,” he

According to a Reuters article, some business groups question Huckabee's free trade credentials: While Huckabee's campaign Web site provides few details of his views on trade, some of his public statements "sound awfully protectionist," said Nachama Soloveichik, a spokeswoman for Club for Growth, a

There wasn't much trade talk that I noticed in last night's Presidential debates.  But I found this one bit from the Republican debate amusing.  In response to a question about illegal immigration, Governor Huckabee said: The fact is Americans are upset about this issue because they

Congrats to the winners of tonight's Iowa caucuses.  Their reward?  Additional scrutiny of their trade policies. Here's Huckabee, talking about trade in the context of his FairTax: If you buy a bottle of domestic wine, you're paying the taxes/compliance/matching payments of all

I wish we could cut through the campaign rhetoric and get answers to some of the fundamental trade questions.  Along these lines, here's my question for the U.S. Presidential candidates:  Under what circumstances, if any, do you think discrimination against foreign goods and services is good policy?