Free Trade Day

Green Bay, WI. 4/26/2025 dwm

It's Free Trade Day, observed May 8 every year, according to NationalToday.com.

The idea behind free trade is not restricting goods either when they come in (imported) or leave the country (exported). 

It was an idea championed by Ronald Reagan. You may have heard of him, he was President during the 1980s.

Reagan said in 1988, "One of the key factors behind our nation's great prosperity is the open trade policy that allows the American people to freely exchange goods and services with free people around the world."

Free trade supporters are optimists, expecting to see growth and abundance. People backing trade restrictions are afraid of the future and see an impoverished world. 

In most cases, economists favor free trade and reducing trade barriers because it boosts the economy as citizens in free trade countries can purchase goods that are better-priced and better-quality. 

While the Reagan approach made exceptions, they were just that, exceptions. For the most part, free trade wasn't a political battleground as Presidents of both parties embraced the central tenets of free trade.

In 1988 the idea was held high by politicians who identified as Republicans. In 2025, the party which calls itself Republican seems to be rallying behind tariffs and trade barriers because they don't think that the American economy can compete otherwise. It's quite a change of opinion.