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Introduction
The 2008 index of Economic Freedom published by the Heritage Foundation ranks the USA as the fifth freest economy in the world. A dimension in the index is the extent to which international trade is free of government interference. In this regard, while not top ranking, the USA is a world leader and champion of free trade, and this has been so for decades, especially after Second World War when the US Government made free trade part of its foreign policy to promote political cooperation and stability. US Government commitment to free trade, however, has not been without occasional but repeated patterns of protectionism that interfere with free trade and cause negative consequences domestically and internationally. More recently, protectionist sentiments in the USA seem to be surging again as manifested by the many bills before the Congress that aim to curtail free trade in different industries and with different countries. Congress has also been stalling on debate and ratification of free trade agreements (FTAs) that the administration had laboriously negotiated with key trade partners in Latin America and Asia. Even presidential candidates in 2008 have been promising to open existing trade agreements to re-negotiate measures that are more restrictive. Furthermore, Congress is putting the final touches on a $300 billion farm bill that is proving to be the "costliest in history" and that WTO trade partners consider the main obstacle to completing the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations ([5] Gordon and Cho, 2008). All this while the rest of the world is moving forward and negotiating FTAs with or without the USA. There are currently 380 FTAs worldwide and the USA is a member of only about ten. This is reason for concern considering that about half world trade takes place within FTAs ([23] Trading Without America, 2007). This renewed surge in protectionism is an occasion to revisit the subject matter to understand trade protectionism, its consequences, and rationale.
Trade
Nations of the world have been trading in goods and services with each other since the dawn of history. In modern times, and especially since the establishment of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), multilateral trade has flourished and produced economic prosperity and political stability among trading partners. The fruits of trade...