No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America's Workers

One of the most consequential U.S. Trade Representatives in our history, Robert Lighthizer led a great reset of American trade policy, a shift that continues to impact the US economy and has endured across Administrations. For more than 40 years, he litigated, negotiated, and editorialized against the failed policies of one-sided free trade as part of both the Reagan and Trump administrations and as a private lawyer. As Trade Representative, he fought against globalists, importers, lobbyists, foreign governments and big businesses whose interests diverged from those of the American workers.

For decades, unbalanced “free” trade was the preferred option for the most powerful in Washington, and millions of ordinary Americans paid the price. Instead of prioritizing a vision of economic nationalism focused on healthy American communities, good jobs, higher wages, and a promising future for our workers, Washington too often cared more about corporate profits, cheap imports and the concerns of foreign governments, including the Chinese. In return, we got cheaper coffee makers and tee shirts, while thousands of factories closed, wages stagnated, communities deteriorated, economic inequality rose in our country, and we racked up trillions of dollars in trade deficits.

Part political memoir, part history, and part policy analysis, No Trade is Free tells the story of how America found itself at this point and how the Trump administration took on the orthodoxy of the trade establishment, with astonishing results. With in-depth character sketches of some of the most important leaders of our time—from Donald Trump, to Xi Jinping, to Nancy Pelosi, to Andrés Manuel López Obrador—Lighthizer explains how trade negotiations actually work and why leverage is the key to success—no trade is free.

This book is a wake-up call to our politicians, thought leaders, but most importantly, everyday Americans. It presents the case against the policies that have weakened America and left our families and communities behind. It argues for a worker-focused trade policy. It tells the story of our fight for every American job and how for the first time, a US administration directly confronted China’s trade policy. But most importantly, it is a guide to the new world economy—one which will require a worker-focused trade policy.

Drawing from decades of high-stakes negotiations, this book delivers a clear-eyed assessment of:

• US Trade Policy History: The inside story of how Washington’s consensus on “free trade” failed American workers, leading to the historic policy reset under the Trump administration.
• The China Challenge: A firsthand account of taking on China’s mercantilist practices, featuring insights drawn from direct negotiations with leaders like Xi Jinping.
• A Worker-Focused Agenda: The powerful case for a new American trade policy that prioritizes good jobs and healthy communities over corporate profits and cheap imports.
• High-Stakes Negotiations: Go behind the scenes of complex international talks to learn how leverage is the key to success and why, as Robert Lighthizer argues, no trade is truly free.