ABSTRACT
Every economics 101 course turns out a new wave of free trade advocates each semester. Public opinion polls indicate that, despite the often cited protectionist tendencies of the American public, most Americans also endorse the concept of free trade. The notion of free trade—the one to which most businessmen, most government officials, and most Americans subscribe—is a bit different. It can best be described as a reciprocal free trade. Supporters of the unconditional-free-trade school would have one believe that their views are derived directly from basic economic principles first outlined by Adam Smith and David Ricardo, principles as incontrovertible as the law of gravity. Against the background of strong criticism and attack at home and abroad, US trade laws have become a major focus of international trade negotiations. In the 1988 negotiations on the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement, the Canadian government made clear that its major objective was curbing the operation of US antidumping and countervailing duty laws.
