Nothing could be further from the truth. Conservatives are always the ones who are pro-free-trade. They
campaign on the issue for goodness sake. Though some liberals do too.
Yes, Reagan increased the number of items that had some restrictions in trade. But, he increased free trade for the most part and reduced regulations, as well as drastically cut taxes on the wealthy. He negotiated the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and signed it into law. It was Ronald Reagan himself who created the concept the NAFTA as early as 1979 when he spoke of a "North American Accord". He talks about this in his announcement declaring his candidacy for President:
"It is no accident that this unmatched potential for progress and prosperity exists in three countries with such long-standing heritages of free government. A developing closeness among Canada, Mexico and the United States – a North American accord – would permit achievement of that potential in each country beyond that which I believe any of them – strong as they are – could accomplish in the absence of such cooperation."
"By developing methods of working closely together, we will lay the foundations for future cooperation on a broader and more significant scale."
"A developing closeness between the United States, Canada and Mexico would serve notice on friend and foe alike that we were prepared for a long haul, looking outward again and confident our of future; that together we are going to create jobs, to generate new fortunes of wealth for many and provide a legacy for the children of each of our countries.
Now let us work toward the goal of using the assets of this continent, its resources, technology and foodstuffs in the most efficient ways possible for the common good of all its people. It may take the next 100 years but we can dare to dream that at some future date a map of the world might show the North American continent as one in which the peoples and commerce of its three strong countries flow more freely across their present borders than they do today."
https://www.reaganlibrary.archives.gov/archives/reference/11.13.79.html
Reagan negotiated the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and signed it into law:
"The impetus for NAFTA actually began with President Ronald Reagan, who campaigned on a North American common market.
In 1984, Congress passed the Trade and Tariff Act. That gave the President "fast-track" authority to negotiate free trade agreements more freely. That's because it restricts Congressional input to the ability to approve or disapprove. Congress lost the ability to change negotiating points.
Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney agreed with Reagan to begin negotiations for the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. It was signed in 1988, went into effect in 1989."
And he sure enough, he continued to support the idea of North American agreement as well. From his State of the Union speech in 1988:
"One of the greatest contributions the US can make to the world is to promote freedom as the key to economic growth. A creative, competitive America is the answer to a changing world, not trade wars that would close doors, create greater barriers, and destroy millions of jobs. We should always remember: Protectionism is destructionism. America's jobs, America's growth, America's future depend on trade--trade that is free, open, and fair.
This year, we have it within our power to take a major step toward a growing global economy and an expanding cycle of prosperity: the historic free trade agreement negotiated between our country and Canada. And I can also tell you that we're determined to expand this concept, south as well as north. Our goal must be a day when the free flow of trade, from the tip of Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Circle, unites the people of the Western Hemisphere in a bond of mutually beneficial exchange.
Source: Pres. Reagan's 1988 State of the Union message to Congress, Jan 25, 1988
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=36035
Here are the facts:
1. Reagan first conceived of a North American economic/political bloc when he was a candidate for President in 1979.
2. President Reagan signed the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984 that allowed any President (including himself) to negotiate free-trade agreements and prevent Congress from negotiating over the specifics of a trade agreement
3. President Reagan negotiated the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and signed it into law. He also continued to push for a North American free-trade agreement (not just the U.S. and Canada)
4. President George H.W. Bush (a Republican) negotiated and signed NAFTA, not President Clinton.
5. President Clinton signed NAFTA into law after Congress---including almost most Republicans---passed it in his first year as President (1993). He did little more than sign it into law after Congress passed it, and after Reagan and G.W. Bush had done essentially all of the work.
"NAFTA was signed by President George H.W. Bush, Mexican President Salinas, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1992. It was ratified by the legislatures of the three countries in 1993. The U.S. House of Representatives approved it by 234 to 200 on November 17, 1993. The U.S. Senate approved it by 60 to 38 on November 20, three days later."
So who supported NAFTA the most? Republicans.
Who opposed it the most? Democrats:
View attachment 351594
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/103-1993/h575
"The strongest support in the House came from Republicans, who cast 132 votes for the trade plan and 43 against it. Among Democrats, 102 voted for the agreement and 156 opposed it."
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-18/news/mn-58150_1_trade-pact
The Senate voted to pass it days later:
"The vote was 61 to 38. As was the case earlier in the House, Republicans supplied the most support, accounting for 34 of the favorable votes to 27 from the Democrats.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-21/news/mn-59485_1_trade-pact
So, as you can see, Republican congressmen (conservatives) are most supportive of free-trade agreements, and Democratic congressmen (liberals) are least the supportive of it.
Reagan was much more anti free trade than Clinton
Nothing could be further from the truth. Conservatives are always the ones who are pro-free-trade. They
campaign on the issue for goodness sake. Though some liberals do too.
Yes, Reagan increased the number of items that had some restrictions in trade. But, he increased free trade for the most part and reduced regulations, as well as drastically cut taxes on the wealthy. He negotiated the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and signed it into law. It was Ronald Reagan himself who created the concept the NAFTA as early as 1979 when he spoke of a "North American Accord". He talks about this in his announcement declaring his candidacy for President:
"It is no accident that this unmatched potential for progress and prosperity exists in three countries with such long-standing heritages of free government. A developing closeness among Canada, Mexico and the United States – a North American accord – would permit achievement of that potential in each country beyond that which I believe any of them – strong as they are – could accomplish in the absence of such cooperation."
"By developing methods of working closely together, we will lay the foundations for future cooperation on a broader and more significant scale."
"A developing closeness between the United States, Canada and Mexico would serve notice on friend and foe alike that we were prepared for a long haul, looking outward again and confident our of future; that together we are going to create jobs, to generate new fortunes of wealth for many and provide a legacy for the children of each of our countries.
Now let us work toward the goal of using the assets of this continent, its resources, technology and foodstuffs in the most efficient ways possible for the common good of all its people. It may take the next 100 years but we can dare to dream that at some future date a map of the world might show the North American continent as one in which the peoples and commerce of its three strong countries flow more freely across their present borders than they do today."
https://www.reaganlibrary.archives.gov/archives/reference/11.13.79.html
Reagan negotiated the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and signed it into law:
"The impetus for NAFTA actually began with President Ronald Reagan, who campaigned on a North American common market.
In 1984, Congress passed the Trade and Tariff Act. That gave the President "fast-track" authority to negotiate free trade agreements more freely. That's because it restricts Congressional input to the ability to approve or disapprove. Congress lost the ability to change negotiating points.
Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney agreed with Reagan to begin negotiations for the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. It was signed in 1988, went into effect in 1989."
And he sure enough, he continued to support the idea of North American agreement as well. From his State of the Union speech in 1988:
"One of the greatest contributions the US can make to the world is to promote freedom as the key to economic growth. A creative, competitive America is the answer to a changing world, not trade wars that would close doors, create greater barriers, and destroy millions of jobs. We should always remember: Protectionism is destructionism. America's jobs, America's growth, America's future depend on trade--trade that is free, open, and fair.
This year, we have it within our power to take a major step toward a growing global economy and an expanding cycle of prosperity: the historic free trade agreement negotiated between our country and Canada. And I can also tell you that we're determined to expand this concept, south as well as north. Our goal must be a day when the free flow of trade, from the tip of Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Circle, unites the people of the Western Hemisphere in a bond of mutually beneficial exchange.
Source: Pres. Reagan's 1988 State of the Union message to Congress, Jan 25, 1988
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=36035
Here are the facts:
1. Reagan first conceived of a North American economic/political bloc when he was a candidate for President in 1979.
2. President Reagan signed the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984 that allowed any President (including himself) to negotiate free-trade agreements and prevent Congress from negotiating over the specifics of a trade agreement
3. President Reagan negotiated the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and signed it into law. He also continued to push for a North American free-trade agreement (not just the U.S. and Canada)
4. President George H.W. Bush (a Republican) negotiated and signed NAFTA, not President Clinton.
5. President Clinton signed NAFTA into law after Congress---including almost most Republicans---passed it in his first year as President (1993). He did little more than sign it into law after Congress passed it, and after Reagan and G.W. Bush had done essentially all of the work.
"NAFTA was signed by President George H.W. Bush, Mexican President Salinas, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1992. It was ratified by the legislatures of the three countries in 1993. The U.S. House of Representatives approved it by 234 to 200 on November 17, 1993. The U.S. Senate approved it by 60 to 38 on November 20, three days later."
So who supported NAFTA the most? Republicans.
Who opposed it the most? Democrats:
View attachment 351594
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/103-1993/h575
"The strongest support in the House came from Republicans, who cast 132 votes for the trade plan and 43 against it. Among Democrats, 102 voted for the agreement and 156 opposed it."
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-18/news/mn-58150_1_trade-pact
The Senate voted to pass it days later:
"The vote was 61 to 38. As was the case earlier in the House, Republicans supplied the most support, accounting for 34 of the favorable votes to 27 from the Democrats.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-21/news/mn-59485_1_trade-pact
So, as you can see, Republican congressmen (conservatives) are most supportive of free-trade agreements, and Democratic congressmen (liberals) are least the supportive of it.
Read this wikipedia article on the history of free trade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade
Free trade has always been championed by liberals.
The 1st
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury,
Alexander Hamilton, advocated tariffs to help protect infant industries in his "Report on Manufactures." For the most part, the "Jeffersonians" strongly opposed it. In the 19th century, statesmen such as Senator
Henry Clay continued Hamilton's themes within the
Whig Party under the name "
American System." The opposition
Democratic Party contested several elections throughout the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s in part over the issue of the tariff and protection of industry.
[17]
Britain waged two
Opium Wars to force China to legalize the
opium trade and to open all of China to British merchants.
In Britain, free trade became a central principle
practiced by the 1840s. Under the
Treaty of Nanking, China opened five
treaty ports to world trade in 1843. The first free trade agreement, the
Cobden-Chevalier Treaty, was put in place in 1860 between the United Kingdom and France, which led to successive agreements between other countries in Europe.
[18]
In the U.S., the Democratic Party favored moderate tariffs used for government revenue only, while the Whigs favored higher protective tariffs to protect favored industries. The economist
Henry Charles Carey became a leading proponent of the "American System" of economics. This mercantilist "American System" was opposed by the Democratic Party of
Andrew Jackson,
Martin Van Buren,
James K. Polk,
Franklin Pierce, and
James Buchanan.
The fledgling
Republican Party led by
Abraham Lincoln, who called himself a "Henry Clay tariff Whig", strongly opposed free trade and implemented a 44-percent tariff during the
Civil War—in part to pay for railroad subsidies and for the war effort, and to protect favored industries.
[19] William McKinley (later to become President of the United States) stated the stance of the Republican Party (which won every election for President from 1868 until 1912, except the two non-consecutive terms of
Grover Cleveland) as thus:
Under free trade the trader is the master and the producer the slave. Protection is but the law of nature, the law of self-preservation, of self-development, of securing the highest and best destiny of the race of man. [It is said] that protection is immoral…. Why, if protection builds up and elevates 63,000,000 [the U.S. population] of people, the influence of those 63,000,000 of people elevates the rest of the world. We cannot take a step in the pathway of progress without benefitting mankind everywhere. Well, they say, 'Buy where you can buy the cheapest'…. Of course, that applies to labor as to everything else. Let me give you a maxim that is a thousand times better than that, and it is the protection maxim: 'Buy where you can pay the easiest.' And that spot of earth is where labor wins its highest rewards.
[20]
Many classical liberals, especially in 19th and early 20th century Britain (e.g., [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill']John Stuart Mill) and in the United States for much of the 20th century (e.g.,
Cordell Hull), believed that free trade promoted peace.[
citation needed]
Woodrow Wilson included free-trade rhetoric in his "
Fourteen Points" speech of 1918:
The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, all we see it, is this: [...]
3. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.
[21]
[/URL]
Liberal "free trade" "conservatives" post ww2 took control of Republican party. Nixon was highly liberal, and lowered tariffs and created the petro dollar.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Richard_Nixon_Free_Trade.htm
On Nafta:
Carter, Bush, and Ford also all supported Nafta, they were highly influenced by liberals.
Reagan was only republican to campaign most on protectionism of any president except trump in past 30 years.
https://mises.org/library/ronald-reagan-protectionist
Mark Shields, a columnist for the Washington Post, recently wrote of President Reagan's "blind devotion to the doctrine of free trade." If President Reagan has a devotion to free trade, it must be blind because he has been way off the mark. In fact, he has been the most protectionist president since Herbert Hoover.
Admittedly, his rhetoric has been confusing. In 1986 Reagan said, "Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets. I recognize. . . the inescapable conclusion that all of history has taught: the freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations."
But he advocated protectionism early in his 1980 campaign, saying to the U.S. auto industry: "Japan is part of the problem. This is where government can be legitimately involved. That is, to convince the Japanese in one way or another that, in their own interests, that deluge of cars must be slowed while our industry gets back on its feet..."
Reagan did help create nafta, but was highly influenced by the liberals, especially rockefellers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Republican
Rockefellers were liberals disguised as conservatives, see modern Day Republicans in Name Only like John Mccain and Paul Ryan, Bush, people who support Obama, vote clinton , and hate trump
