Free trade needs strong enforcement

Donald Trump has been warning Americans about the dangers of unfair trade for years. His first major political speech in 2011 was a blistering attack on our country's "weak and ineffective" political leaders for failing to prevent abusive trade practices by the likes of China, Mexico, and South Korea, allowing America to become "the laughing stock of the world."

"The United States has become a whipping post for the rest of the world," the future president told a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

Trump was right then and he's right now. Thankfully, as president, he is finally in a position to do something about it. And he has: Since taking office, the president has taken a number of steps to crack down on countries that have clearly violated our trade laws, often at the expense of American workers.

President Trump will soon be confronted with a series of more narrowly targeted trade cases that would send a strong signal to companies that have been gaming the system for years by sidestepping previous enforcement efforts by moving their production or ignoring our trade rules completely.

The cases deal with a number of divergent products, from solar panels to airplanes to washing machines. Each case is unique, but combined they give the president another avenue to prevent countries and companies from ripping off our workers by ignoring the rules to sell products at unfairly depressed prices.