Protective tariffs should be restored, he says
Former Gov. Buddy Roemer continues to march to his own drummer in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Last week, he stood before the Chinese Embassy in Washington and delivered a detailed, hour-long speech -- with an additional half hour of Q-and-A -- on the folly of American trade policy.
Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer works on his speech at a bookstore in Manchester, N.H., July 20 2011 Roemer said that abandoning protective tariffs -- "the most successful economic policy in the history of America" -- for free trade after World War II, effectively decimated American manufacturing.
"We've become the biggest fools in the world, adopting global free trade while other countries imposed trade barriers against our products. We've abandoned the simple common sense of our founding fathers," Roemer said. Of China, Roemer said that the opening of trade to the world's largest nation after President Richard Nixon's visit there was supposed to create a vast new market for American goods but, in the end, has led to the flooding of the American market with cheap Chinese goods made under conditions Americans wouldn't tolerate here.
Roemer said the key to restoring American manufacturing jobs was a return to protective tariffs -- a "fair trade adjustment" -- that would require China and other countries to pay the difference between what it costs to manufacture goods in their country and what it costs to manufacture them in the United States.
Bruce Alpert can be reached at balpert@timespicayune.com or 202.450.1406. Jonathan Tilove can be reached at jtilove@timespicayune.com or 202.450.1404.