Last month, President Donald Trump made waves by threatening to impose a tariff on John Deere for moving production to Mexico. Some reactions bordered on hysterical. But as I said in my own letter to John Deere this August, corporations have a duty to their workers and their nation, not just to their shareholders. CEOs are free to outsource American jobs—but policymakers are free not to reward them for doing so.
To understand the debate, you have to understand the history. America became an industrial juggernaut thanks in no small part to common-sense tariffs and trade protections. This kept our country resilient and provided good-paying jobs to millions of people. After the World Wars, however, a coalition of Washington insiders and industry elites began to abandon our protections. They lowered tariffs across the board, and they created trade agreements and programs that offered duty-free treatment to imports from dozens of countries.
Lowering trade barriers makes sense …