Austan Goolsbee's Vindication

[question everything]

APRIL 24, 2009

Austan Goolsbee's Vindication
Obama backtracks on Nafta, as his economic advisor said he would.

Three cheers for President Obama's decision, announced quietly on Monday, to repudiate a campaign promise and not press for new labor and environmental regulations in the North American Free Trade Agreement. The last thing the Western Hemisphere needs are more trade barriers that would snarl supply chains and damage commerce.

Perhaps we should call this Austan Goolsbee's revenge. Recall that last year the Obama economic adviser had told a Canadian diplomat to ignore Mr. Obama's Nafta campaign rhetoric; the candidate was merely pandering to Big Labor. When that disclosure became news, Mr. Goolsbee was banished to the campaign's isolation ward for imperfect spinners. Now we know Mr. Goolsbee -- not the candidate -- was the one telling the truth.

Mr. Obama got an earful on trade from his counterparts at the Summit of the Americas over the weekend and that might have something to do with his Nafta walkback. But three other trade issues to watch are the unilateral U.S. ban on Mexican long-haul trucks, which has sparked a trade war with that country, the U.S. failure to ratify a free trade agreement with Colombia, and the 54-cent per gallon U.S. import duty on Brazilian ethanol. Mr. Obama has promised to discuss each one. But the real test will be his willingness to spend political capital to defeat protectionists in Congress.

Mr. Obama's stonewall on Colombia is especially damaging. On the weekend the White House was still repeating the AFL-CIO talking points about "violence against labor leaders in Colombia." But even Mr. Obama's own trade rep, Ron Kirk, admits Colombia has made enormous human rights progress. Mr. Obama's Nafta decision signals he's not keen to pick another trade fight, but he still has some major repair work to do with our Latin American friends.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124052930166750407.html

[Hello_Kitty]

1. A WSJ op-ed.

What a surprise. :eyes:

[question everything]

3. Too much work to actually comment on the contents?

Or, like Buh "this is hard...."

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Okay, here goes

Op-ed: "Blah blah protectionism bloop blorp free trade yada yada commerce glurk trade barriers glorp unions bad corporations good glurg..." written by some greedy bastard.

[OHdem10]

2. It is beginning to look as if the Campaign meant nothing.

Backtracking on Middle Class Taxcut, now Trade.

It did not take long to give the Middle Class the usual Democratic
Shaft.