WASHINGTON,DC: The trouble with our trade debates is that people assume that they’re only about economics. Since World War II, US trade policy has also been a pillar of US foreign policy. In the early postwar decades, America encouraged trade with Europe and Japan -- allowing more of their exports into the United States -- as a way of achieving our political goals. Trade would build their prosperity, and their prosperity would promote democracy over communism.

“There was a confluence of security and economic considerations,” says Harvard political scientist Jeffry Frieden. American officials recognized that “giving [our allies] access to the American market was a lot cheaper than foreign aid.” Besides, US economic superiority was taken for granted. Before the war, American and German chemical companies had been rivals. “By 1945, we didn’t have to worry about the German chemical industry,” he says.

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