General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: United States has lost 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000 [View all]bhikkhu
(10,711 posts)"Free trade" doesn't exist - what there are is trade agreements, which both parties negotiate and agree to. The fear of trade that many people have comes from the results of decades of "strong dollar" policy, which makes imports much cheaper than domestic production here, and our exports much more expensive than domestic production there.
Obama has packaged well-negotiated trade agreements and policies with a more balanced monetary policy, and the result is that we have increased manufactured good exports, increased manufacturing jobs, and reduced the trade deficit (somewhat). When you scoff at the notion that we could benefit from trade, you repeat the results of past presidents and ignore the results of this president. Several hundred thousand people in the US with new jobs created by the growth in exports and manufacturing here would disagree.