At the heart of America’s enduring success lies a steadfast commitment to entrepreneurship and voluntary economic exchange. For over 250 years, the United States has illustrated to the globe that when individuals are given the freedom to innovate and engage in trade, both for their own benefit and that of others, they experience not only increased wealth but also improved living standards and enhanced security—both economically and militarily.
However, since the commencement of the Trump Administration in 2025, a series of steep protective tariffs have been implemented through unilateral executive actions. These tariffs have sown seeds of uncertainty and chaos within the global marketplace, resulting in erratic rates and ever-shifting regulations. Collectively, they represent the most significant tax hike on trade in nearly a century. Advocates of these tariffs claim they are measures of ‘economic liberation’; yet, in reality, they undermine the very principles of freedom that paved the way for an era characterized by American prosperity and liberty.
The Founding Fathers of America were staunch opponents of political favoritism and the restrictive nature of Mercantilism. In 1774, Thomas Jefferson instructed Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress to champion the rights of American colonists to “engage in free trade with all corners of the globe.” This sentiment echoed two years later in the Declaration of Independence, which highlighted one of the key grievances against King George III: “For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world.”
This commentary is drawn from the “Trade and Tariffs Declaration: A Statement on the Principles of American Prosperity,” collaboratively crafted by a group of economists led by Don Boudreaux and Phil Magness. My role was primarily to correct a few typographical errors and ensure that the names of three prominent economists, along with another scholar further down the list, were included as signatories.
I encourage you to read the full document. If you are a legitimate economist, you can also lend your name to this initiative. The statement has also attracted the support of academics from fields such as philosophy, history, and political science.
If you don’t fit into those categories, fear not—you can still support the cause without being listed.
As an aside, I usually have a solid grasp of the content in such statements before I sign them. One surprising detail that caught my attention was the statistic below:
A staggering two-thirds of American imports are utilized as inputs for domestic production.
