It’s not often that phrases such as “institution-level reforms” and “never needed” appear in state-run media at all, let alone favorably. I am pleased this happened in a recent article on trade policy in Canada’s CBC:
In a report issued Wednesday, the U.S.-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, urged the Trump administration to get rid of all tariffs.
“Tariff reform should have been a priority before the coronavirus hit, but now it’s even more urgent to lift trade barriers, in particular for health care supplies and treatments,” said Ryan Young, CEI senior fellow and author of the report, in a statement.
“Tariffs were never needed in the first place, and they are causing harm during a potentially Depression-level economy. The time to act is now.”
Among other things, the report calls on Congress to “make big-picture, institution-level reforms to U.S. trade policy” — including the repeal of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and Sections 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 — to “restore tax authority to the legislature and make trade policy less subject to presidential whim.”
CEI is misidentified as conservative rather than liberal, in the correct sense of the word. But there are bigger battles to fight. The full article is here; my recent paper on tariff relief is here.
Inertia Wins! 