Protectionist Policies Quotes

Will the shutting out of foreign goods increase the total amount of wealth in this country? Can foreign nations grow rich at our expense by selling us goods under cost price? Can a people tax themselves into prosperity? Can a man stand in a bucket and lift himself up by the handle?

[We must] teach the advocates for an open trade the folly as well as degradation of their policy.

The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war. The wars of our age are not at variance with popular economic doctrines; they are, on the contrary, the inescapable result of a consistent application of these doctrines.

Tariffs, quotas and other import restrictions protect the business of the rich at the expense of high cost of living for the poor. Their intent is to deprive you of the right to choose, and to force you to buy the high-priced inferior products of politically favored companies.

In 200 years when the United States will get all that it can from protectionism, it too will adopt free trade.

The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war.

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

When the new states of Europe were created by the Treaty of Versailles their new governments, lacking revenue and not daring to impose direct taxes on their people, resorted to the dangerous expedient of imposing high taxes at the border on merchandise seeking to enter their markets from abroad. An immediate slowing down of commerce resulted.

Where does Donald Trump come from - and it's not just Donald Trump. It's a whole movement of right-wing extremism, not just in this country but also in Europe, which is a response to globalization, to the financialization of our economy, you know, to the trade agreements that throw working people under the bus.

Protectionism has never been an answer, will never be an answer. We need trade. We need trade agreements worldwide.

While protectionism doesn’t work, pure free trade doesn’t work either.

Sugar protectionism is government planning, It is industrial policy—government picking winners and losers—applied to agriculture.

Protectionism is something that will hurt everybody, but especially the United States.

Trump is a hybrid phenomenon as I see it. He is somewhat like UKIP and Le Pen with his right-wing populism that espouses some fascist overtones, but he's also partly just the old neoliberalism in disguise, especially if we look at some of the people he appointed to his cabinet.

Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all used temporarily targeted tariffs on specific industries.

Basically, the myth is that America has been founded on the free market; the government has done very little; it has thrived under free trade. But actually, if you look at the history, this is actually the country that has succeeded most with protectionist policies.

Import and substituting imports with domestic production are a big opportunity. With a devaluation of the rupee, imports get expensive, and for Indian manufacturers, this creates a huge opportunity.

Protectionism is the institutionalization of economic failure.

Perhaps the globalization potion is too strong for us today; it should be watered down with some measure of economic nationalism.

We can do a much better job free of protectionist Europeans.

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

Tariffs would mean prices going up, and customers don't want higher prices.

[Bernie] Sanders tapped into that [trade issues]; that was part of his support. And then when he didn't make it, some of those Sanders people went to [Donald] Trump.

The countries we are defending are stealing our markets.

Inward-looking unilateral trade policies invite retaliation.