Note on the Fly

Even though there is absolutely no reason to give special treatment to people who lose their jobs to imports as opposed to people who lose their jobs to other sources of demand shifts that are unrelated to trade across international borders, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for workers who lose their jobs to imports is typically justified as a low-cost means of smoothing the road to freer trade.

But today TAA is a boulder blocking the road to freer trade.