Based on some comments from my students, I had to hit this again..
The government has very little to do with the amount of imports coming into the country. Businesses in the U.S. decide to import products rather than buy local. They do this because imported products are usually cheaper, and cheaper is what their customers (you & me) look for. They wouldn't import it if we didn't buy it. Importing is how WalMart gives us the "everyday low prices" which are quite important to us.
But we "need the low prices because we can't find good-paying jobs, because there aren't many jobs to choose from." It is a chicken & egg thing - fewer jobs mean lower wages, so we buy cheap imports, which leads to fewer jobs & lower wages, which leads to more imports, which leads to fewer jobs & lower wages...
The government influences imports primarily in 2 ways: 1. product-quality regulations, and 2. Trade taxes & rules. The product quality is self-explanatory - if a product doesn't meet U.S. product safety standards, it isn't allowed in. The taxes are penalties importers must pay - these penalties get passed on to us by higher prices. So the government has reduced & eliminated most trade taxes (tariffs) - that is what NAFTA & the WTO is about.
American consumers & workers should take a fair part of the blame because we are constantly demanding higher wages & lower prices. You can't have them both at the same time (or companies would go broke quickly, then no one has jobs). At this point the lower prices part is winning. Our wages still are among the highest in the world, but as we import more & lose more jobs, global wages will catch up to ours. As global wages catch up, prices of imports will go up, so imports will look less attractive (when added to increased transportation costs, we might see a return to locally made products in another 30 years or so).
Corporate greed is part of the problem, too. Local laws & regulations (such as increasing minimum wages, & social programs like Social Security & welfare) is part of the problem. Rising health care costs are another part. The list goes on, but let's not put it all on the government's shoulders. They do enough to get frustrated about, lets not get mad over something that isn't their fault.
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