Trump, Ford, and the much-deserved death of free trade

In what he called a “vote of confidence” of President-elect Donald Trump, Ford chief executive Mark Fields announced that his company had canceled plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico.

{mosads}Instead, Ford was going to pump $700 million into Michigan and create 700 new jobs in the process.

“We are encouraged by the pro-growth policies that President-elect Trump and the new Congress have indicated they will pursue,” Fields said:

“And we believe that these tax and regulatory reforms are critically important to boost U.S. competitiveness, and, of course, drive a resurgence in American manufacturing and high-tech innovation.”

Fields stressed that, unlike Carrier in Indiana, his company had not “struck a deal” with the incoming President. Ford was investing in America because it saw America had a president who was going to put her first.

#Ford adds 700 new jobs at Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Mich. to produce high-tech electrified and autonomous vehicles. pic.twitter.com/UHeUTcX73T

— Ford Motor Company (@Ford) January 3, 2017

While that was undoubtedly true, one must believe that Fields also sees the writing on the wall. The same day Fields announced Ford’s plans to invest in the country it calls home, Trump tweeted that car companies who make cars overseas to be sold in the U.S. should pay a price.

“General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax,” Trump tweeted.

General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A.or pay big border tax!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017

Trump was telling U.S. manufactures that his promise to keep manufacturing in the U.S. was about to move from rhetoric to reality.

Throughout the 2016 election Trump refused GOP demands that he genuflect to the golden calf of free trade. Instead, Trump mocked politicians who have struck disastrous trade deals that undercut U.S. manufacturing and allowed corporations to move production overseas with no consequence.

Since President Bill Clinton grabbed free trade by the horns and worked with Republicans to enact the North American Free Trade Agreement, the issue of trade has become a truth to be honored; not a policy to be debated. It is under this framework that free traders exiled those who wanted to protect American manufacturing as heretics.

Free trade, thus, morphed into a utopian dream in which commerce binds the nations of the world together in a manner that prevents global conflict and advances mankind. It is the same dream peddled by Woodrow Wilson in the aftermath of World War I; it is the same dream that fails to understand human nature.

“The thing about trade is, it can feel like a competition, where there’s always a winner and always a loser,” Speaker Paul Ryan said in February 2015 in support of giving President Obama “trade promotion authority.”

“But really, it’s more like a collaboration because both sides succeed. Otherwise, they wouldn’t do it. More trade means more people from every country, buying, selling, investing, creating — all working together to build a better world.”

Ryan is willfully clueless. Nations (other than the United States) enter trade deals that are beneficial and, if they aren’t, find ways around the rules and/or break the deals.

China manipulates her currency with no fear of reprisal from free traders like Ryan who fear “trade wars” more than being fleeced. European nations use subsidies to get a leg up on U.S. manufacturing. One need only ask Boeing about how Europe’s illegal subsidization of Airbus has worked for them.

And while U.S. “trading partners” steamroll us, Third World nations court U.S. companies like cheerleaders court the all-star high school quarterback. Why stay in America when America doesn’t put out, these nations ask.

Why stay in a nation that has an EPA & OSHA looking over your shoulder, demands a minimum wage be paid, and is home to one of the highest corporate tax around? Why buy the American cow when you can get the Third World milk for free?

The very reason free trade fails is that nations are inherently tribalistic and corporations are inherently greedy. They are going to put themselves before any ideology. The problem is that the politicians spouting free trade, like Ryan, are so enamored by the dream that they are blind to the reality; a reality the four men on Mount Rushmore warned against.

“We allowed foreign countries to subsidize their goods, devalue their currencies, violate their agreements and cheat in every way imaginable, and our politicians did nothing about it,” Trump said during a June 2016 campaign speech in Monessen, Penn. Ryan is one of those politicians.

Trump was right in Monessen and he is right today. The president-elect is opening our eyes to a new reality; a reality in which free trade is no longer infallible.

When NAFTA was debated we were told those manufacturing jobs that went overseas would never come back. Manufacturing was a sunset industry. Trump, even before he has raised his hand to take the oath of office, is showing that when a president vows to take care of his own those will jobs never leave.

It appears the sun is setting on America’s ill-advised flirtation with a failed free trade.

Joseph R. Murray II is administrator for LGBTrump, former campaign official for Pat Buchanan, and author of “Odd Man Out.” He can be reached at jrm@joemurrayenterprises.com.

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