America got great on world trade, not protectionism

Washington

MOST Americans likely think that our trade policies have been largely the same since the Republic's earliest days. The assumptions are that we are free traders now and always have been, and that we have long been a manufacturing power, boosting exports. If we sometimes lose in global competition, the main cause is that other countries don't play fair.

The truth is more complicated, as economist Douglas Irwin of Dartmouth College shows in his monumental study of US trade policy since the Revolution, titled Clashing over Commerce. Just published, it is an essential companion to the debate over President Donald Trump's trade agenda.

Professor Irwin quickly dispels the notion that manufacturing has traditionally characterised US exports. To the contrary, the US initially resembled what would today be called a "developing country". He writes: "Prior to the Civil War, food and raw materials (wheat and cotton) comprised about two-thirds of exports, and manufactured goods (clothing and metal goods) comprised about two-thirds of imports." Only toward the end of the 18…