Fair Trade Is Unfair
When politicians call for fair trade with foreigners, they almost always hypocritically use a concept of fairness that makes a mockery of the word’s normal usage. In exchanges between individuals-and in contract law-the test of fairness is the voluntary consent of each party to the bargain: “the free will which constitutes fair exchanges,” as Sen. John Taylor wrote in 1822. When politicians speak of unfair trade, they do not mean that buyers and sellers did not voluntarily agree, but that federal officials disapprove of the bargains American citizens chose to make....