Neither works in a pure form.
In general, I feel that free trade is acceptable when both nations have strong similar regulations and labor protections which would mean no real advantage coming from shipping jobs from one country to the other. However, being in a manufacturing state, I must say that pure free trade as the globalists want is downright dangerous.
This is pretty close to my position
in practice, at least in terms of labor. I also think that tariffs make sense when confronted with non-tariff barriers or heavy subsidization (see: China, South Korea, Japan, etc... Come to think of it, if unfettered Trade is always so great why do so many Asians seem to be so selective about it?). Of course what is being proposed through NAFTA/WTO/etc. is not really 'free trade,' just a different variety of central economic planning. Nobody in power is stupid enough to propose actual free trade because they would lose out to competitors pretty quickly.
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