By GottaLaff
Trade-offs:
The Obama administration is aggressively reworking U.S. trade policy to more strongly emphasize domestic and social issues, from the displacement of American workers to climate change.
Even as world trade takes its steepest drop in 80 years amid the global economic crisis, the administration is preparing to take a harder line with America's trading partners. It will seek new benchmarks before supporting already-written trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea and is suggesting that it will dig in its heels on global trade talks, demanding that other countries make broader concessions first. [...]
In the United States, more Americans are blaming cheap imports for job losses at home and congressional leaders pressed successfully to include a "Buy American" provision in the $787 billion stimulus program to give an edge to U.S.-made products. [...]
During the campaign, Obama said he generally supports free-trade policies, but also signaled a tougher trade approach that is only now beginning to be outlined. Both in Kirk's testimony and in a policy statement issued by new Obama appointees at the office of the United States Trade Representative, the administration vowed to make tougher labor and environmental standards a pre-requisite for trade deals. Rather than stressing the signing of new agreements, the administration indicated it will instead prioritize stricter enforcement of existing ones before the WTO -- the Geneva-based body that arbitrates global trade.
In what appeared to be a jab at the Bush administration's zealous pursuit of free trade agreements, [Ron Kirk, Obama's nominee as U.S. trade representative] -- the former mayor of Dallas -- said "I do not come to this job . . . with 'deal fever.' We're not going to do deals just for doing so."
The administration, he said, is conducting a review of trade agreements signed by the previous administration with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. He said outright that the deal with South Korea, as currently written, "is simply unfair." He added that "we are prepared to step away from that" if it is not reworked. [...]
Though Kirk declined to detail what those benchmarks may be, analysts have suggested they might involve, for instance, a U.S. insistence that murders of union leaders be sharply reduced in Colombia before lending support to the deal.
The new USTR statement also stated that trade policy must now contain a new element of "social accountability," including on issues such as climate change. [...]
"The result will be a complete re-think on what U.S. priorities are on trade and what trade agreements look like in the future," said Randall Soderquist, Senior Trade Program Associate at the Center for Global Development. "This could mean starting from scratch versus just taking the baton from the Bush Administration."
Yet the administration still appears to be toeing a line, saying it will move to address the concerns of American workers while also carefully avoiding words and deeds that directly smack of protectionism.[...]
"It is true that cheaper foreign products helped squeezed American families stretch their dollars, and the sale of our goods and services abroad support American families," [Kirk] said. "But it is also true that the overarching benefits of trade are difficult to appreciate when a plant closes in a small community because of increased foreign competition."
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