Candidate Review - Fair Trade - Fred Thompson

Fred Thompson doesn't address Free Trade or Fair Trade, on his issues page. But a Google search reveals that he did give a speech in which he touched on Free Trade (which he prefers to fair trade) enough to give a pretty clear sign of where his thinking is.

Some people are saying that in effect after this war in Iraq is over we need to come back home and close the doors and lock them and pull down the shades and build up walls of protection and trade protection and raise taxes and redistribute the income.

. . . . On globalization we aren’t afraid of America; it’s a good thing for America. We do more things better than anybody else. We have more innovation; we invest more in innovation in this country and in our service economy than anybody in the world. Free trade and free prosperity have done more things and caused more prosperity in the world than anything any central planner ever could have come up with and America is the best example of that.

If we want to help our friends in South America and Africa for example and other places, we need to lower our trade barriers, we need to have more trade.

Pretty straightforward; but pretty shallow at the same time. Still I think it's clear, at this point, that Thompson is better at playing a politician than actually being one.