Free trade is under greater attack today than it has been in decades, especially in the United States. Despite continued public support for foreign trade and globalization generally (even during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic), a bipartisan cadre of American politicians and pundits is increasingly skeptical of, or downright hostile to, the longstanding consensus in favor of trade liberalization. The U.S. government, moreover, increasingly prioritizes national security, economic "resilience," and the people and communities allegedly left behind by our modern and globalized world. The Biden administration's reluctance to remove former President Donald Trump's tariffs or to pursue new trade agreements has, along with pandemic-related supply chain snarls and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, signaled to many that an era of de-globalization is upon us.
Yet, even as its justifications and the global economy change, the current skepticism toward free trade and globalization remains misguided. Academic literature and recent events continue to provide strong economic, geopolitical, and moral support for free trade and the multilateral trading system. There is also little concrete sign that the world—so far, at least—is really de-globalizing, though trade and supply chains, as well as the rules under which they operate, are changing.
