WASHINGTON ¨C Most Americans likely think that our trade policies have been largely the same since the Republic¡¯s earliest days. The assumptions are that we¡¯re free traders now and always have been; also, that we¡¯ve long been a manufacturing power, boosting exports. If we sometimes lose in global competition, the main cause is that other countries don¡¯t play fair.
The truth is more complicated, as economist Douglas Irwin of Dartmouth College shows in his monumental study of U.S. trade policy since the Revolution, ¡°Clashing over Commerce.¡± Just published, it is an essential companion to the debate over U.S. President Donald Trump¡¯s trade agenda.
Irwin quickly dispels the notion that manufacturing has traditionally characterized U.S. exports. To the contrary, the United States initially resembled what would today be called a ¡°developing country.¡± He writes:
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