Abstract
This essay reviews US trade flows and trade policy from the perspective of consumers. Trade policy shapes the prices and the availability of products sold in the US to, ultimately, voters. Understanding the role of consumers in explaining US trade policy may therefore offer lessons for our understanding of politics beyond trade. International trade has created substantial gains for consumers, both by lowering domestic prices and by increasing access to a wider variety of products. Yet, US trade policy does not appear to reflect consumer interests: tariffs are higher for products with higher consumption shares. This finding is inconsistent with the narrative that open trade is a response to consumer interests, and it is not explained by standard collective action arguments either. Instead, the political influence of pro-trade firms emerges as a driving force of US trade openness. The essay discusses the implications for our understanding of the political and institutional sources of trade openness. If special interest politics explains the opening of trade, it reverses the traditional interpretation of trade openness as an indication of the absence of special interest politics.
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©2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction – January 2020 Volume of Forum
- Articles
- Trump’s Trade Revolution
- Pro-Trade Blocs in the US Congress
- Trump, Trade, and Immigration
- Consumers and the Sources of US Trade Openness
- How Have Members of Congress Reacted to President Trump’s Trade Policy?
- Trade Policy is Back in the News: Will Voters Care?
- The Counties that Counted: Could 2020 Repeat 2016 in the US Electoral College?
- It’s Trump’s Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To
- Book reviews
- Review of The Politics of Institutional Reform: Katrina, Education, and the Second Face of Power
- Review of The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction – January 2020 Volume of Forum
- Articles
- Trump’s Trade Revolution
- Pro-Trade Blocs in the US Congress
- Trump, Trade, and Immigration
- Consumers and the Sources of US Trade Openness
- How Have Members of Congress Reacted to President Trump’s Trade Policy?
- Trade Policy is Back in the News: Will Voters Care?
- The Counties that Counted: Could 2020 Repeat 2016 in the US Electoral College?
- It’s Trump’s Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To
- Book reviews
- Review of The Politics of Institutional Reform: Katrina, Education, and the Second Face of Power
- Review of The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite