New political climate favors trade expansion
Thursday, August 7, 2003 9:19 AM PDT
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E-mail this articleThe House recently voted to add Chile and Singapore to this nation's still short list of free-trading partners. With the expected Senate approval, they will join Canada, Mexico, Israel and Jordan.
It's only a small step toward the current administration's laudable goal of toppling barriers to free trade worldwide. But we take particular encouragement from the vote tallies --- 270-156 for the Chile agreement and 272-155 for the Singapore agreement.
A large number of House members represent districts with aging industries unable to compete in a global economy. The lower chamber generally has been far less accepting of market-opening trade agreements than the Senate. Opponents of free trade traditionally have made their stand in the lower chamber.
But the votes on these two free trade agreements suggest that the political climate has changed. They are advancing without the sort of bitter political battle that preceded approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement almost a decade ago.
The rhetoric hasn't changed all that much. That's true. Neither have the hardball tactics of free trade's staunchest opponents.
A little more than a week ago, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa put the large field of Democratic presidential hopefuls on notice: "You are either with us or against us. You are either with the American worker or against the American worker. These (trade) agreements leave no room in the middle."
Hoffa is mistaken to presume that the American worker's interests are served by erecting barriers to trade. He is among a dwindling number of union officials and politicians who continue to deny the obvious --- that protectionist walls eliminate far more jobs than they preserve.
The Teamster president will find few who share his thinking on trade among the front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination. Only Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt consistently opposes free trade agreements.
Old-time trade protectionists are a dying breed on Capitol Hill. Their credibility took a beating over the past decade, when that "great sucking sound" Ross Perot predicted in the wake of NAFTA never materialized. To the contrary, the landmark trade agreement marked the start of the longest economic booms in the nation's history, accompanied by the creation of millions of new jobs.
Trade expansion is a win-win proposition. The recent House votes on the two new trade pacts is evidence that this Congress is willing to pursue it aggressively. That's encouraging.
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