Not a Zero-Sum Game - Ludwig von Mises Institute
Not a Zero-Sum Game - Ludwig von Mises Institute
Not a Zero-Sum Game - Ludwig von Mises Institute
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had in mind when he said, "The first condition of a planned econ-<br />
omy is that it be a closed economy."3<br />
In establishing a free economic system for the United States, the<br />
Framers mandated free trade among all the states in the union.<br />
They spelled this out in Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution:<br />
No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference<br />
shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports<br />
of one State over those of another: nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one<br />
State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.<br />
At 54 words, this was the original North American Free Trade<br />
Agreement. As we shall see, the 1994 agreement that goes by that<br />
name makes a travesty of free trade.<br />
The damage done by restrictions on international trade became clear<br />
to most people during the debacle of the 1930s. Once World War I1<br />
had ended, the popularity of fiee trade surpassed Macaulay's fond-<br />
est hopes. Yet in many ways truly free trade was not in keeping with<br />
the tenor of the postwar times. Free trade requires neither complex<br />
laws nor ponderous bureaucracies. With the establishment of the<br />
United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary<br />
Fund, the world was moving in the opposite direction. So postwar<br />
governments sought managed trade rather than free trade. While the<br />
establishment of the proposed International Trade Organization was<br />
avoided fiee trade was not restored.<br />
3. Cited by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. in "Who Killed Free Trade?" The Free Market 14,<br />
(April 1996): p. 2.