Milton Friedman wrote in his 1962 book, “Capitalism and Freedom,” “We would be benefited by dispensing with our tariffs even if other countries did not,” rejecting conventional wisdom that reciprocity was the foundation of trade. The “we” in his advice was the United States, and even though his ideas on trade are not held in high regard by the current U.S. government, other countries have shown willingness to take them up. The global average tariff rate has fallen steadily over the past three decades, and many of those reductions were done unilaterally to levels below the maximum rates allowed by the World Trade Organization.

In recent years, Canada and Switzerland both unilaterally eliminated all tariffs on manufacturing inputs. They did so because they realized it was bad policy to tax their own manufacturing companies extra. What was good for manufacturing companies is also good for the people in general.