The challenges to the liberal trading system

Free trade has been a universally accepted economic tenet for almost two centuries. Despite challenges, Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage has proven to be one of the most enduring of all economic laws. In recent decades, however, the liberal trading system has come under increasing attacks in the form of strategic trade and industrial policies, the deindustrialization in advanced countries, rapid globalization and outsourcing, and others. This paper reviews each of these attacks and concludes that they do not justify abandoning or moving away from the general preference of a liberal trading system.