U.S. Trade Law and Policy at a Crossroads

The past decade has witnessed significant changes in U.S. international trade policy. In his first presidential term, Donald J. Trump moved the United States away from long-standing policies of lowering trade barriers to facilitate global commerce and replaced them with a more restrictive version not seen since the early twentieth century. President Trump's more trade-restrictive policies were largely extended by his successor, President Joseph R. Biden. The first year of President Trump's second term has indicated a strong desire to restrict imports further in an attempt to create U.S. manufacturing jobs and reduce reliance on Chinese imports. This Article seeks to (a) situate recent changes in U.S. trade law and policy in a historical context, (b) argue that free trade policies are more consistent with America's traditions of individual liberty than protectionist ones, (c) argue that free trade policies on balance better serve U.S. economic interests, (d) recommend changes to U.S. trade policies to enable their benefits to be more broadly shared, and (e) argue that changes in certain non-trade policies are needed to address real and perceived problems with post-World War II trade policies.