Robert Samuelson Thinks We Don't Give Trade Enough Credit

Following in the footsteps of his colleague at the Post, Dylan Matthews, Robert Samuelson devoted a column to a new book on trade by Robert Lawrence, complaining that we don't give enough credit to trade. I won't rehash the basic points that Samuelson gets wrong. However it is probably worth going through the basic story as to how trade can lead to overall gains to the economy and yet hurt large groups of workers.

Suppose that we diverted 6 percent of the current flow of immigrants so that in...