^{Wealth & Poverty Review} On Free Trade, Let’s Go All the Way with the U.K.

The trade deal with Great Britain, unveiled last Thursday, was a definite step in the right direction. The Wall Street Journal summarizes:

The pact, which appeared to have been put together hastily by U.S. and British officials, is fairly limited in scope. The Trump administration agreed to roll back tariffs imposed on British steel and automobiles in exchange for purchasing Boeing jets and giving American farmers greater access to U.K. markets.

Under the deal, most U.K. goods will still be subject to the global 10% tariff the U.S. imposed on all countries in April. But U.K. steel and aluminum will be exempt from the U.S.’s 25% levy and U.K. car tariffs will be lowered to 10% from 25% for the first 100,000 vehicles.

In return, the U.K. is cutting tariffs on some U.S. beef imports from 20% to zero. The U.K. will also cut tariffs on ethanol. U.K. officials say that they are continuing to negotiate with Trump officials to reduce the baseline 10% tariffs the U.S. imposed. U.K. officials said the legal framework for the tariff reductions had yet to be signed.

That’s all good, but the next steps for the U.S. should take us closer to going all the way to full free trade with the U.K. Dr. Stephen Meyer, Director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, has been arguing for this for decades, going back to when he was a graduate student in the philosophy of science at Cambridge University.

He made the case in a 1989 Wall Street Journal op-ed, and after President Trump’s election in 2016, Meyer was still pressing the issue in National Review:

During this spring’s Brexit campaign, President Obama threatened to make the United Kingdom wait at the “back of the queue” for any future trade deals with the United States if the British people made the “unthinkable” decision to leave the European Union.

Now that Americans have made a shocking choice of their own, President-elect Trump should honor his promise to move Britain to the front of that same queue.

Indeed, he should immediately offer the U.K. a simple, bilateral free-trade deal with the United States. It would not only promote both countries’ interests — it would boost a wide range of President Trump’s other priorities, too.

Read the rest here: “This Should Be Trump’s Top Trade Priority.”

In Meyer’s words, President Trump has now indeed moved Britain to the “front of the queue.” About the latest news, Dr. Meyer said this:

The new trade deal is to be welcomed. It is a hugely significant achievement that makes each country’s markets more open to each other, providing for bilateral cooperation in the reshoring of critical industries, notably pharmaceuticals, while creating a secure supply chain.

True, it makes limited sector-specific concessions, allowing both countries to protect particular industries. In that sense, it’s not an absolute free trade agreement, providing for tariffs and protections on both sides. But overall, it makes trade freer than it was and, even more encouraging, both sides have agreed to continue discussions to further open their markets to each other in the future. Above all, it cements the bilateral defense and intelligence-sharing relationship we have with the British by adding an economic dimension to that “special relationship.”

It’s satisfying to reflect that, on trade as on other issues totally unrelated to it, Discovery Institute has clearly been far ahead of the curve.