The solar eclipse can teach us a lot about trade policy

Monday’s solar eclipse gave millions of Americans a rare chance to partake in a breathtaking cosmic event. It also afforded us opportunities to contemplate all sorts of questions as we viewed the moon’s transit across the sun through eclipse glasses or other political and policy lenses. As I left my viewing spot — a pastoral college campus in the heart of textile country in South Carolina — I thought about what trade policy professionals can learn from the eclipse. Five lessons jump to mind. 

Everybody’s Involved

First, the eclipse affected everybody. Although viewers in only 14 states had a chance to witness the total eclipse, viewers in all 50 states — as well as our North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners in Mexico and Canada — got to experience some degree of partiality. While individual views differed greatly, even in the path of totality where cloud coverage challenged many, this was an event that touched people across the continent. 

So too does trade. Just look around and you will see how trade affects every American multiple times per hour. From the clothes they wear to the jobs they hold to the food they eat, Americans are interacting with trade policy all day long. Some — a longshoreman, for example — may have deeper, more obvious connections, but all are touched in one way or another. 

Pay Attention to Warnings

Second, the eclipse came with a caution. Viewers of the partial eclipse were endlessly warned — so much so that my son quipped that an acronym for eclipse could be “Everybody Can Look If Protection Shields Eyes” — that they could only watch through special glasses. We were even warned to be on guard for counterfeit glasses.

Viewers who ignored these warnings risked permanent damage to their eyesight. Those who followed them were welcomed with a safe and incredible experience. Trade carries similar warnings as well. The positive outcomes of trade flows are endless, as consumers and trade-dependent workers alike benefit greatly through the goods they can buy or the jobs that keep them employed.

But trade has a dark side as well, as counterfeiters and other trade cheats try to take advantage of the system. Well-articulated and enforced rules can mitigate these concerns. But, like those who insist upon gazing at an eclipse without protection, rules won’t addresses these problems entirely.

Alignment is Key

Third, the eclipse requires lots of things to line up properly to work. A total eclipse occurs because the moon appears to be about the same size as the sun and because the moon’s orbit takes it directly between the sun and the earth. Being able to see totality also requires being in the right spot, a function of the earth’s revolution around the sun and the earth’s rotation around its own axis, not to mention cooperative traffic and weather.

Trade also only works well with incredible alignment. An entire army of workers, including cotton growers, yarn spinners, fabric knitters, apparel manufacturers, designers, truck drivers, screen printers, customs brokers and trade negotiators, had to work together to make sure the eclipse t-shirts that were sold in Pickens County, South Carolina were actually available on the day of the eclipse. If you took pictures or shared your eclipse experience on a smartphone, you can thank a similar team as well. 

New Opportunities Emerge

Fourth, the eclipse gave us a chance to see things that we don’t normally see. Those in the path of totality were able to witness the sun’s corona — the rays normally obscured by the bright light of the sun. Totality also gave rare glimpses of planets during the day, as well as the appearance of what looked like a 360-degree sunset.

Trade also gives us access to services and products — like Coronas from Mexico — that we wouldn’t normally be able to get. We also gain access to foreign markets so we can sell our own goods and services to more people than ever before. Ironically, such benefits are so commonplace that we largely take them for granted. To gain a better appreciation for trade, we should re-learn to cherish these benefits as if they showed up as rarely as a solar eclipse. 

Better Understanding Gives Us a Better Experience

Finally, the eclipse is straightforward, but seems shrouded by mystery. For millennia, eclipses were little-understood phenomena that many saw as bad omens or signs of heavenly displeasure. The darkness and momentary “disappearance” of the sun were often feared. Eclipses are now seen through an entirely different lens.

More akin to a global block party, eclipses are widely anticipated, well-predicted affairs that demonstrate our sophisticated understanding of gravity and our mastery of the math needed to calculate complicated orbits well into the future (or the past). Likewise, trade critics often view global commerce through a similar dark lens, relying on populist myths and disproven economics to claim how it has harmed millions of Americans.

In fact, the opposite is true, with trade emerging as a hugely positive force, supporting sustained U.S. economic prosperity while lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty worldwide. But we only know this because, like the science behind eclipses, we are doing a better job of measuring precisely where trade impacts us.

Americans are now preparing for the next major total solar eclipse to cross our continent in April 2024. As we look seven years into the future and prepare to watch this spectacle with our NAFTA partners, let’s take care to heed some of these lessons so the only thing that is obscured then is the sun.  

Steve Lamar is executive vice president at the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA). He is responsible for the design and execution of AAFA lobbying strategies on a series of issues covering trade, supply chains and brand protection. Lamar is also president of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA), an organization dedicated to providing a neutral forum for discussion of international trade policy and related issues.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.