Free Trade Quotes

• Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez faire.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Capitalist Economy, Liberty, Libertarian

  55 Copy quote

• Free trade has been proven, time and again, as a reliable path to economic development. It pushes the public and private sectors alike toward greater accountability and transparency. It lifts people out of poverty, and while it can force unsettling changes on a society, those changes prove to be worthwhile in a very short time.

  Jonah Goldberg

  People, Accountability, Development

  4 Copy quote

• Our free trade plan is quite simple. We say that every [citizen] shall have the right to buy whatever he wants, wherever he wants, at his own good pleasure, without restriction or discouragement from the state.

  Winston Churchill

  Simple, Citizens, Want

  4 Copy quote

• Free trade is not based on utility but on justice.

  Edmund Burke

  Justice, Trade, Utility

  "Thoughts and Details on Scarcity" by Edmund Burke, 1795.

  16 Copy quote

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• Complete free trade is not politically feasible. Why? Because it's only in the general interest and in no one's special interest.

  Milton Friedman

  Special, Interest, Trade

  6 Copy quote

• Globalization and free trade do spur economic growth, and they lead to lower prices on many goods.

  Robert Reich

  Philosophy, Political, Growth

  18 Copy quote

• Free trade or the free market means the sovereignty of the consumer.

  Faustino Ballve

  Mean, Free Market, Sovereignty

  5 Copy quote

• Free trade is not a principle, it is an expedient.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Principles, Politics, Trade

  5 Copy quote

• Free trade, one of the greatest blessings which a government can confer on a people, is in almost every country unpopular.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Country, Blessing, Government

  "Essay on Mitford's History of Greece" by Thomas B. Macaulay, 1824.

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• The message from history is so blatantly obvious - that free trade causes mutual prosperity while protectionism causes poverty - that it seems incredible that anybody ever thinks otherwise. There is not a single example of a country opening its borders to trade and ending up poorer.

  Matt Ridley

  Country, Thinking, Example

  6 Copy quote

• We need to fight protectionism with everything that we have because when there's a level playing field and when you have open markets and when free trade is flourishing, American workers, American farmers, Americans are going to benefit.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Fighting, Needs, Level Playing Field

  Source: www.cnbc.com

  6 Copy quote

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• Free trade should not mean free labor.

  Stephen F. Lynch

  Mean, Should, Trade

  6 Copy quote

• Free trade is the serial killer of American manufacturing and the Trojan Horse of world government. It is the primrose path to the loss of economic independence and national sovereignty. Free trade is a bright, shining lie.

  Pat Buchanan

  Horse, Lying, Loss

  "Where the right went wrong". Book by Pat Buchanan, 2001.

  28 Copy quote

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• Rich countries have 'kicked away the ladder' by forcing free-market, free-trade policies on poor countries. Already established countries do not want more competitors emerging through the nationalistic policies they themselves successfully used in the past.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Country, Past, Rich Countries

  Ha-Joon Chang (2008). “Bad Samaritans: The Guilty Secrets of Rich Nations and the Threat to Global Prosperity”, p.61, Random House

  17 Copy quote

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• In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.

  Karl Marx

  Historical, Gentleman, Revolution

  Karl Marx, David McLellan (2000). “Karl Marx: Selected Writings”, p.296, Oxford University Press, USA

  7 Copy quote

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• I believe in free trade, but I really believe in making great deals for the United States.

  Donald Trump

  Believe, United States, Trade

  Source: townhall.com

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• Everyone asks for freedom for himself,
  The man free love, the businessman free trade,
  The writer and talker free speech and free press.

  Robert Frost

  Freedom, Men, Speech

  Robert Frost (1936). “A Further Range”

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• Free trade is very important if we respect equality among nations.

  Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

  Equality, Important, Trade

  "Americas summit ends in stalemate / U.S. vision for free-trade zone thwarted by 5 of 34 nations; no date for more talks" by Patrick J. McDonnell, Edwin Chen, www.sfgate.com. November 6, 2005.

  18 Copy quote

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• The ability to provide choices and the right to make choices that prove not detrimental, are the fundamental ingredients of free trade and independence.

  John Truman Stoddert

  Freedom, Choices, Independence

  3 Copy quote

• Bigotry does not consort easily with free trade.

  Peter Ackroyd

  Doe, Trade, Bigotry

  3 Copy quote

• NAFTA and GATT have about as much to do with free trade as the Patriot Act has to do with liberty.

  Michael Badnarik

  Liberty, Usa Patriot Act, Trade

  102 Copy quote

• We've advanced in the construction of a true free-trade area across South America... What's needed now is less rhetoric and more action.

  Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

  America, Action, Construction

  9 Copy quote

• The free trade movement in the middle of the last century represents the first conscious recognition of these new circumstances and of the necessity to adapt to them.

  Christian Lous Lange

  Lasts, Firsts, Movement

  6 Copy quote

• You don't need a treaty to have free trade.

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Needs, Libertarian

  67 Copy quote

• This conviction brought me, in the summer of 1978, to the Free Trade Unions - formed by a group of courageous and dedicated people who came out in the defense of the workers' rights and dignity.

  Lech Walesa

  Summer, Rights, People

  7 Copy quote