A Reagan administration deputy trade administrator summarizes Tea Party attitudes toward trade in this NYT op ed.
But Tea Partyers will ask, what good does it do to reduce the role of our government if foreign governments are free to rig the rules, attack American industries and take American jobs? As a result, the otherwise pro-market Tea Party may find its economic program far more at home with a nationalist trade policy that confronts foreign abuses and fights for American companies.
Tea Partyers also have an instinctive aversion to deficits, and they are undoubtedly concerned that our enormous trade imbalances — which require us to sell hundreds of billions of dollars in assets each year — will leave our children dependent on foreign decision makers. Indeed, the value of foreign investments in the United States now exceeds the value of American investments abroad by $2.74 trillion, and China alone has roughly $2.5 trillion in foreign currency reserves, primarily dollars.
Deficits, moreover, aren’t just a statistic; they raise serious concerns about America’s global leadership role. The Tea Party will demand to know why, if our trade policy is so successful, so many experts believe that the 21st century will belong to China, not the United States.
And the Republican establishment will have to deal with the fact that Tea Party heroes like Alexander Hamilton, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan had no problem restricting imports to promote our national interest. Given the Tea Party’s desire to restore America’s greatness, it will push Washington to stand up to China and re-establish American pre-eminence, even at the cost of the country’s free-trade record.
Finally, trade is an issue where Tea Party concerns about “elites” thwarting the will of the voters will resonate.
In this case, the elites include both Democrats and Republicans. You would need a high-powered microscope to tell the difference between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on the subject of trade. Even during this slow economic recovery, Mr. Obama is pushing for a new market-opening round of talks at the World Trade Organization.
I agree with all that, but I'm not going to be seen in public with tea bags dangling from my straw hat.