International Trade Loses Favor

I blame the Suez Canal.

According to the latest data from Gallup, Americans are far less likely now than they were a year ago to view foreign trade as an opportunity for U.S. economic growth (Gallup)

• In total, 63% of Americans have positive views of trade. This is down from last year’s 79%.

• On the other side, 32% of Americans now view foreign trade as a threat to the U.S. economy.

Not surprisingly, Republican support has collapsed from the 78% high last year to 44% in the latest poll. Democrats saw a small drop from 82% to 79%.

What is surprising is that Republican’s were at 78% to begin with. I had always assumed that Republicans supported trade and slowly over the years it fell out of favor. Finally hitting rock bottom under Trump. However, according to Gallup GOP support ebbed and flowed with the economy and support for international trade actually skyrocketed under Trump. Obviously, Republicans view trade from the perspective of who is making the deals. They trusted Trump to make good deals so therefore trade under Trump is favorable. They clearly don’t have the same perspective about Biden.