Interesting piece by Noah Smith
“Back in the 1980s or
1990s, few would have predicted that Japan would become the standard-bearer of
free trade. This is, after all, the country that once tried to ban foreign-made
skis by claiming that Japanese snow was different from snow in other countries.
How times have
changed. As the U.S. sinks into protectionism, the Land of the Rising Sun is
one of the few countries still pushing for trade agreements. Japan recently
made a free-trade dealt with the European Union, and is trying to keep the
Trans-Pacific Partnership alive even after the U.S. exited the deal.”