From columnist Peter Orszag at Bloobmerg View:

News flash: Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts ardently favors a policy change that could materially expand trade with Asia and lower the prices of foreign goods sold in Boston and throughout the U.S.

No, I’m not talking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I’m talking about the deepening of Boston’s port.

Senator Warren is a strong supporter of a $300 million project to allow the port to handle bigger container ships. And that is significant because the Panama Canal expansion, scheduled to be completed next year, could well have a larger effect on international trade in the U.S. than the TPP trade deal, which Senator Warren opposes.

Containerization has played a key role in the expansion of trade over the past 50 years, as Paul Krugman and others have noted. Some evidence suggests it’s done more than trade deals to boost trade. To be sure, the growth of container shipping may have had different effects in the past than it will going forward, but that’s also true for trade deals, and the history suggests container shipping could be as or more important.

More at Bloobmerg View