The Washington trade establishment goes to great pains to deny U.S. manufacturing has declined due to trade, because elites worry it weakens support for globalization, writes Rob Atkinson in Issues in Science and Technology. They see trade policy as free trade vs. protectionism, but the real choice is between the current system of weak enforcement and laissez-faire domestic policy, and a new strategy that embraces rules-based globalization with tough enforcement plus a domestic traded-sector strategy focused on innovation.
