018 Top Priority Podcast | Free Trade Priority Initiative

Show: 018 Top Priority Podcast | Free Trade Priority Initiative
Date Recorded: November 26, 2019
Host: Duane Lester, Manager of Issue Education, Grassroots Leadership Academy
Guests: Dan Pearson, Trade Policy Fellow, Americans for Prosperity

Show Notes & Timestamps
  • Why is the Stand Together Community involved in the issue of Free Trade? min [4:26] 
Whenever a country restricts its imports, it reduces the freedoms of its own citizens to do business with whomever they want. —Dan Pearson
  • Why is Free Trade part of the Stand Together Openness portfolio? min [8:55] • What happens to a society when it is closed off to others? min [11:18]
  • What does the Stand Together Community stand for when it comes to Trade? min [13:21]
  • Self-sufficiency is the road to poverty and trade is the road to prosperity. —Russ Roberts— min [19:23] 
  • If America opens our market to the world—without tariffs, quotas, or barriers—how does that help Americans? min [23:29] 
  • What is the China shock? min [35:10]
  • What is the reality of Americas exporting power? America is the world’s largest trading company in terms of the value of imports plus exports. min [39:45] 
  • What is meant by a trade deficit and is it a meaningful measurement? min [41:05] 
  • Individuals and businesses—not bureaucrats and politicians—should guide trade decisions. min [48:12] 
Letting capitalism work has been the route to prosperity for all of mankind. —Dan Pearson— 
  • Punitive measures, such as tariffs and quotas, are an unjust government intrusion into the lives of hardworking Americans; they violate the property and associational rights of individuals and should all be eliminated. min [51:15] 
  • Subsidies and other forms of government support for powerful and politically connected businesses and individuals do not create value; they punish consumers, burden taxpayers, isolate businesses from market competition and should be eliminated. min [53:20]
  • Trade disputes should be solved through existing international trade organizations and agreements. min [58:19]
  • How our Community views Free Trade through the lens of the fourth mutually-reinforcing principle—Self-Actualization. min [1:18:09]
  • Do the laws of economics work for the entire world or just the United States? min [1:18:37] 
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. —Milton Friedman—

**Additional Resource**