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64%
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 64% of Americans say they support free trade with foreign countries. That represents an all-time high in the NBC/WSJ survey on this question, and it’s a 7-point increase from the last time it was asked in 2017.
72%
A new Gallup poll finds a record-high 72% of Americans see foreign trade as an opportunity for economic growth. This is up sharply from 58% last year, after much debate about trade during the presidential election cycle.
Edward Alden: “… Trump showed he does not understand the first thing about trade negotiations. In announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, Mr. Trump has just unilaterally given away the biggest piece of leverage he had to deal with the biggest challenge in the world of trade, which is the increasingly troubling behavior by the world’s second largest economy, China. It is the first rule of any negotiation that you don’t give away something for nothing. Mr. Trump just did. And as foreign policy analyst Dan Drezner tweeted: ‘That sound you hear is the clinking of champagne glasses in Beijing.’”
68%
Of Republicans and Republican-leaning registered voters say free trade has been a bad thing for the U.S., while only 24% say it has been good for the country, according to Pew Research. “These views, which have shifted starkly since May 2015, when 51% of Republican voters said free trade was a good thing for the U.S. and 39% said it was bad, came as President-elect Trump criticized free trade throughout the 2016 election cycle. Democrats, on the other hand, remain largely positive about free trade.”
