|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
|
 Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:05 pm Post subject: Democrats on Trade: Unilateralists |
 |
|
Sebastion Mallaby, a moderate WaPo commentator, has a nice piece on the Democratic candidates' unilateralist proposals on trade.
| Quote: |
[I]t's one thing for Democrats to call for a timeout on negotiating new trade treaties and another to threaten violence to existing ones. During last Tuesday's debate, Obama and Clinton both promised to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement, infuriating Canada and Mexico and puncturing the Democratic claim to be less unilateralist than Bush. Moreover, the Democrats' anti-trade rhetoric has become so vitriolic that it is setting the stage for an attack on the World Trade Organization, the most significant addition to the international system since the end of the Cold War.
The WTO, particularly its dispute-settlement tribunal, represents a rare triumph in the management of globalization. While money, goods and people flow in ever-greater quantities across national borders, governments remain stubbornly local, and efforts to bolster multinational governance are generally unsuccessful. The launch of the WTO in 1995 was the exception, but it remains politically fragile. The coming argument over "green tariffs" -- to offset other countries' failure to cap or price carbon -- may end up in front of the dispute-settlement tribunal, and those who don't like the tribunal's decision will question its legitimacy. Primed by the Clinton-Obama attacks on trade, it may not be long before we hear echoes of former senator Bob Dole, who once proposed a panel to second-guess WTO rulings that went against the United States. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
stillnotking
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Location: Oregon, USA
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Well, apparently the Obama campaign has signaled they're not serious about reopening NAFTA. CTV is reporting that Obama's economic adviser Alan Goolsbee made a back-door contact with the Canadian government to reassure the Canucks that this is all just campaign rhetoric. Which says good things about Obama's commitment to free trade, and bad things about his honesty on the campaign trial.
It's no surprise that the anti-NAFTA rhetoric is heating up. One of the two big primaries on March 4 is in Ohio, and NAFTA is about as popular as terminal cancer among the Buckeye State lunch-bucket crowd.
NAFTA has flaws but it would be folly, not to mention a breach of faith, to think about scrapping it at this point. For what it's worth, I seriously doubt either a President Clinton or a President Obama would do that. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
There is a range of views on free trade among Democrats. My perception is that Dems don't favor it as much as Republicans, mostly because of the effect on labor at home. It's all well and good for a corporate board room to unilaterally decide to move the factory to Mexico, but what is supposed to happen to the workers in Somewheresville, Ohio? Republicans as a party tend to say that that is how the old ball bounces and you are free to seek another job anywhere you please. Democrats get opposition when they propose job training programs and unemployment insurance to help workers bridge the results of others' decisions.
I think it's a fair question to ask if an economy is healthy if it only has highly skilled jobs and totally unskilled jobs to offer. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| stillnotking wrote: |
[I]t would be folly, not to mention a breach of faith, to think about scrapping [NAFTA] at this point. |
Precisely. Whatever you think of NAFTA, that's exactly what's wrong with the sentiments proposed by Clinton and Obama.
| Ya-Ta Boy wrote: |
| I think it's a fair question to ask if an economy is healthy if it only has highly skilled jobs and totally unskilled jobs to offer. |
Its only a fair question to ask if the economy truly has only highly skilled jobs and totally unskilled jobs to offer, and if NAFTA has any correlation to the problem. There's a lot I could add to this, but I'll refrain.
Here's my suggestion to fair traders: Buy American, shop according to your conscience, and if you must, move quickly to stop emerging trade agreements.
But DO NOT try to dismantle trade relations already in existence. It will not create jobs but destroy them. It will hurt our credibility abroad. It will not accomplish anything productive, in either the short or the long term. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
