The key difference in Harris and Trump’s trade plans

As with the 2020 meeting between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the 2024 presidential election, which pits Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris, will lack a pro-free trade candidate. Given the importance of swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with their histories of organized labor and manufacturing, no political party can afford to run on a platform of trade liberalization anymore. This makes it even more important to understand the differences between the two versions of protectionism that Trump and Harris are offering this year.

It wasn’t always this way. American politics has long been characterized by a divide between the two political parties on trade issues. Since the administration of former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, the Republican Party generally embraced free trade and pushed for more open markets and lower tariffs. In contrast, the Democratic Party, which has traditionally been supported by organized labor, has opposed trade liberalization. However, since the administration of former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, Democrats have gradually embraced trade liberalization, although this has often been accompanied by trade adjustment policies to support affected workers.

During the subsequent period of peak globalization, both sides were more supportive of free trade than ever before. But this did not last long for two reasons: first, because of the political resistance to economic globalization that surfaced after the global financial crisis; and second, China’s rapid rise as an equal economic and military competitor, further eroding America’s commitment to free trade.