(Note: The Open Letter to President Trump was released through Real Clear Markets on October 24, 2025.)
Here is the letter:
Dear President Trump,
We the undersigned write to ask the US government to tear down international anti-competitive
market distortions (ACMDs). Your administration’s policy provides an opportunity for a reset to
deal not only with tariff barriers but also with all market distortions that damage the competitive
process and thus destroy wealth. Regrettably, these ACMDs, which include both traditional tariff
and non-tariff barriers as well as regulatory matters that distort ordinary market competition and
lack of property rights protection, have not been well addressed in the international trading
system or by major trading countries in the past thirty years. These issues are major impediments
to economic growth, and indeed recent economic models suggest that the costs of non-tariff
ACMDs may be considerably more impactful than conventional border barriers.
The Trump administration is right to highlight the problem with its proposed trade realignment.
While many of us differ on the medicine we would use to treat the problem, we think that a
framework that measures the US’s trade agreements with other countries on the basis of their
success in lowering these ACMDs should ground US trade policy actions at this time. A
systematic reduction of ACMDs across the board in all countries would be a significant boost to
U.S. and global GDP per capita, giving opportunity and hope to billions.
Signed,
(See full letter with signatures by clicking below.)