LOS ANGELES — There is no such thing as "free" trade. In truth, the phrase "free trade" is an oxymoron.
Indeed, you'd have to be pretty naive to think that anything of any importance in life was ever going to be cost-free. As the cliched saying goes: There's no such thing as a free lunch!
Nevertheless, this oft-used term, which you read about in the media all the time, flies out at us from the large closet of increasingly commonplace terms about globalization. "Free trade" hangs on the rack just next to "lower tariffs," "trading blocs," "trade negotiations" and the most dreaded of all "outsourcing."