President Obama may be right: Free trade is a winning strategy that will lower consumer costs and expand employment in exporting industries.

“When 98 percent of our exporters are small businesses, new trade partnerships with Europe and the Asia-Pacific will help them create even more jobs,” the president declared in this year’s State of the Union address.

In the short run, however, trade imposes heavy costs on American workers in both the manufacturing and service sectors, particularly on those least equipped by training and education to adapt.

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