[graeme]

There's a credible case to be made that the shipping container did more to kill manufacturing jobs than any trade agreement. The container reduced shipping costs far more than lack of tariffs.

It's also likely that America could not have maintained its standard of living by walling itself off from this new technical development. The rest of the world would have continued to trade without America.

[nostrademons]

The shipping container also dramatically changed the geography of international trade, redirecting shipping away from shallow-draft ports (like in the Great Lakes, New England, or much of the American South) and from ports in heavily urbanized areas (like San Francisco or Manhattan) toward a small number of megaports like Seattle, Oakland, Long Beach, New Jersey, Houston, and Hampton Roads. When the old port was close to a new megaport (SF -> Oakland, Manhattan -> New Jersey), the city shifted from trade to financial services. When no major deep-draft container port was nearby (Great Lakes), the area's economy tended to whither and die, at leas relative to past glory.

[tannhaeuser]

AFAIK containers where invented in the US.