The End of Free Trade: A Conversation With Robert E. Lighthizer

The global trading system requires a fundamental transition from free-trade idealism to a model prioritizing balanced trade, national sovereignty, and domestic manufacturing. Robert E. Lighthizer, former U.S. Trade Representative, contends that the post-Cold War reliance on globalized markets facilitated a massive transfer of wealth and eroded American industrial capacity. China’s rise, fueled by state-led industrial policies and currency manipulation, represents an existential threat that has created dangerous dependencies in critical sectors. To reverse these trends, U.S. policy must utilize tariffs and strategic decoupling to protect domestic labor and restore economic resilience. By shifting focus away from consumption-based growth and toward production-oriented stability, the United States can address the hollowed-out manufacturing base and the resulting decline in working-class prosperity that characterized the previous decades of trade policy.