Because I'm a pragmatist. Basic economics says that you're going to make your goods where it's cheapest to do so. This is why free trade is awesome and great if you're a third-world country, because developed nations like the United States can't compete with slave labor. It's vastly cheaper to outsource your manufacturing, call center, and most other entry-level/meat-and-potatoes jobs to some godawful country that most Americans can't pronounce, much less identify on a map, than to pay American workers to do the job. Now that makes for good publicity for companies like Discover who run ads like this and proudly proclaim that 100% of their customer service reps are US-based, but tell that to all those people that lost their jobs to somebody in a boiler room in India.
But above all, for me, it's because I've seen first-hand what free trade does to American jobs and American families having lived my entire life in Michigan. The decline in union membership that began during the Reagan administration combined with free trade deals and, to be fair, the intentional mass-exile of white people from Detroit by Coleman Young and his cronies all laid the groundwork for Detroit to become what it is today. NAFTA was the final death punch, as most GM manufacturing left Detroit and Flint and went to Oshawa, Ontario and to Mexico.
But the auto industry is only one example of how free trade has harmed my state. Stryker, the world's largest maker of medical devices, shipped all of its manufacturing from its headquarters in Kalamazoo to Tijuana, Mexico, where wages are 1/5 what they are across the border. Now that fact has turned Tijuana into the medical device capital of the world, conveniently located across the border from San Diego, California, where their products can be shipped to customers across the country. It's turned Tijuana, once a third-world-esque place where a house consisted of two cardboard shipping crates into a fast-developing city with plenty of jobs and industry.
Now that's obviously great for the people of Tijuana, but at whose expense did that come at? Hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Kalamazoo whose jobs were shipped to Mexico. I say that protectionism follows the same logic as locking your doors before you go to bed at night. You put up obstacles and barriers to stop greedy companies from shipping your jobs overseas for the same reason that you lock your doors to keep robbers and burglars out while you're sleeping. Signing trade deals like NAFTA and TPP is like leaving your front door standing open at night and putting a sign over the threshold that says "Free stuff."
Ugh, economics is not a zero sum game. For there to be winners, there don't necessarily have to be losers. Free trade has also created as many jobs, if not more, in the US than it has lost. Though to be fair those without college education probably get a rough deal while those with a college education or those in skilled trades get a better deal with free trade. And while there are areas that have been hurt by free trade, like Michigan, there are many other places in the US it has benefited. On balance, free trade is good for the USA. It may not be as good for the USA as it is for developing countries, but it has made the USA a better place to live for its citizens.
