The NYT almost made it to the end of an article about the Obama administration's decision not to reopen NAFTA before using the term "free trade." The context was a description of trade representative Ronald Kirk as a supporter of "free trade."
Of course Mr. Kirk is not a supporter of free trade. He supports government protection in the form of copyright and patent protection and has never expressed concern about the barriers to foreign professionals working in the United States which inflate physicians wages and the price of other professional services.
Reporters can save words and increase accuracy by dropping the word "free" from such discussions.
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