Michael Bloomberg Quotes

I never was a free-trader. I never felt that we could ... do away with all protective devices, because we would have been flooded with imports which would have hurt our economy.

The arguments for protection are more easily made attractive than those for free trade.

Trade is injured when it is not allowed to follow its natural course, and when it is either hampered or diverted by artificial obstacles. ...We believe in free trade because we believe in the capacity of our countrymen. That at least is why I oppose protection root and branch, veiled and unveiled, one-sided or reciprocal. I oppose it in any form

I worry about protectionists, which is another way of saying less competition, less trade around the world. And I view those as twins of negativity.

Trade has suddenly become massively unpopular. I think that's massively unjust. I think free trade has been wonderful for America on balance.

When someone says, `Let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,' it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works - but only for a short time....over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs.

One by one, trade and investment barriers will continue to be swept away by globalization, like leaves on an autumn day…The new challenge will be less to regulate relations among national economies, than to establish the rules and structures of a transnational economy.

Immediate restrictions must be introduced to drastically reduce imports. We waste millions of dollars on provocative imported commodities, like dog food, nuts, and ice cream.

Those who whine incessantly and maintain the romantic notion of a self-contained market speak against the interests of American workers and a growing standard of living. They are trafficking in fear and promoting ignorance while advancing their own political ambitions. No great nation has ever increased its worth over time by closing its markets. In fact, history is replete with examples of closed markets leading to destructive economic consequences.

It must become a nation of free traders, which would throw open its ports to the world, and prove to European nations that the colonial system of restriction and monopoly was founded on delusion

Free trade: certainly the interest of nations, but by no means the interest of certain towns and districts, which tariff feeds fat; and the eager interest of the few overpowers the apathetic general conviction of the many.

Free trade is always vulnerable to democratic politics.

It is difficult to overcome protectionism when times are bad.

There are some who want to move us back to the days when we were protectionists and keep all goods off our shores.

When America closes its doors, so does everybody else.

The United States can't keep a completely open system if the rest of the world is less open. The United States may have to take a leaf out of the book of Japan, China, and Germany, and have protectionism inside the system.

Before we move forward with new efforts to lower the barriers to international free trade, we must review the consequences of the policies of the past and address the problems of the present.

Internal protectionism in Europe would be deadly, really a disaster for European economies.

Evidence points out that if you raise tariffs too much it will increase smuggling.

A trade war is a conflict in which each side uses most of its ammunition to shoot itself in the foot.

These agreements should be free trade. They aren’t free trade.

Thank God I am not a free-trader. In this country pernicious indulgence in the doctrine of free trade seems inevitably to produce fatty degeneration of the moral fibre.

A liberal economy doesn’t mean opening wide the doors for imports.

Liberalization of trade barriers are essential for long-term global growth.

The closest we can come to free trade is illuminating the barriers to free trade.