This morning over at National Review they made a comment that trade deals take years and we shouldn’t even want one sooner, but I disagree. The reason NAFTA took years is to negotiate carve outs–and free trade doesn’t need carve outs. Instead of 1500 pages, it could have likely been done in a couple of pages if the economists had their way. So simple is always better.

So here is my simple rule for reciprocity. If you have nuclear missiles pointed at this country, we will not trade will you. If we have nuclear missiles pointed at you, we will not trade with you. If you have nuclear missiles targeted at any of our allies, we will not trade with you. If you have harbored/encouraged terrorists to attack us or our people anywhere in the world, we will not trade with you. If you repeatedly whip up your population to chant “death to America” we will not trade with you. If you have an official position of trying to destroy Israel, we will not trade with you.

But if you do not engage in these bad behaviors, our citizens may freely trade with one another, since nations don’t trade with one another, only people do.

Foreign trade is foreign policy. It doesn’t need to be complex.