The right policy for the U.S. is to reduce its own trade barriers, the burdens of which are borne by her own people.
One of Trump’s favorite talking points on tariffs is that the U.S. is some kind of free-trade paradise while the rest of the world is staunchly protectionist. It isn’t true, as is apparent if you are even slightly familiar with the federal government’s tangled web of subsidies and trade restrictions affecting large swaths of the economy.
A new report from the Tholos Foundation puts some numbers behind that intuition. The International Trade Barrier Index 2025 ranks countries based on their openness to cross-border trade. It looks at both tariff and non-tariff barriers (NTBs), such as export subsidies, quotas, and domestic regulations that hinder foreign goods, along with restrictions on trade in services as well.
It finds that the U.S. ranks 61st out of 122 countries in international trade freedom. In tariffs, it ranks 81st. In NTBs, it ranks dead last at 122nd.
The U.S. is rich despite its trade barriers, not because of them. Daniel Hannan writes in the report’s foreword, “As in past years, the world’s freest economies account for most of its GDP. Show me a country with high tariffs and I’ll show you an economic basket case.” Other countries around the U.S. ranking include Slovenia (57th), Guyana (60th), and Rwanda (63rd).
The report notes that the data on which it is based were collected in early 2025. “Trump’s tariffs, if permanent, would plunge the U.S. score from 61st to 111th overall,” the report says.
The U.S. ranks very well in the services category, where it is 13th in international trade freedom. The U.S. has a services trade surplus of roughly $300 billion per year, something that shouldn’t be possible if protectionists are right that tariffs are needed to correct trade deficits.
Canada and Japan, the supposed protectionist fiends ripping off the U.S. under the cover of alliance, rank fourth and fifth in overall trade freedom, respectively.
NTBs are the preferred form of protectionism for wealthier countries, as other top users are concentrated in Europe. So while it’s often true that European countries use NTBs to protect their industries, so does the U.S., to an even greater extent.
Western Europe also ranks very poorly for its barriers to digital trade, making Europeans worse off and denying U.S. tech companies from doing as much business there as they otherwise would.
But the U.S. is the world’s top user of anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties, which are used to remedy allegedly unfair low prices as a result of foreign misbehavior. So whatever the effects of foreigners’ export subsidies, the U.S. is currently doing more than any other country in the world to counteract them.
There is plenty of truth to the claims that other countries use protectionism to benefit their industries. But the U.S. is guilty of this as well, often to a greater extent than other countries are. The 61st most free-trade country is in no position to lecture countries that rank higher about their trade barriers. The right policy for the U.S. is to reduce its own trade barriers, the burdens of which are borne by her own people.