I've wondered for years why the media in this country continue to support the fantasy of "free trade." It's my conclusion that this country is the world's last remaining "trade virgin," and we suffer from that as well as our democratic transparency. As a nation, we are so completely and blissfully unaware of the protectionist behavior of many of our trading partners that we actually rush to apologize when some of us stand up and say "ouch"—because we truly just don't know any better. The reality is that for many in the rest of the world, comparative advantage has been abandoned in favor of mercantilism, favoritism and pure horse-trading. We cannot possibly play the free-trade game fairly all by ourselves.

I've come up with a long list of myths and perceptions that can be presented only partially here.

1. The U.S. is protectionist and revisiting the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. In a recent World Bank study of trade barriers, the United States ranked among the lowest, alongside Hong Kong and Canada.