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Tide turning against free trade?
Today, on RealClearPolitics, Tony Blankley has an interesting article about free trade.
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"Until the 1980s, it was not even a debated point. Both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives largely supported free trade. During the past 20 years, doubt has emerged on the question of whether Americans gain or lose from free trade. But the Bill Clinton presidency, in full partnership with the Newt Gingrich Republican Congress, fully supported free trade.
However, even in the 1990s, the Democratic Congress only begrudgingly voted with half its caucus for Clinton and Gingrich's NAFTA. About two-thirds of the Republican caucus voted yes. Then, by about 40 percent to 30 percent, Republican voters thought free trade was good for America (with the remainder saying it made no difference). Now, according to an October 2007 Wall Street Journal poll, by 59 percent to 32 percent, Republicans think foreign (free) trade has been bad for America. Democrats are more negative. Many other polls confirm this trend over the past two decades.
Thus, it was not surprising that this Monday, the Financial Times gave their lead headline (plus a 3-by-6-inch above-the-fold color photo) to Hillary Clinton on her statement that she doubted the benefits of the upcoming world-trade talks in Doha, Qatar. As her campaign is largely premised on the proclaimed wisdom and success of her and her husband's previous presidency, it is noteworthy in the extreme that she is breaking with her co-president (some guy named Bill, I think) on the question of free trade."
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"What the country (and the Republican Party) needs is an intelligent, nonbelligerent debate, not the mere recitation of ancient maxims that may or may not be valid in a world in which potentially 2 billion Chinese and Indian workers suddenly have been thrown into the world labor market. Maybe that won't put severe downward pressure on American wages (and salaries of many white-collar workers), but it ought to be worrying."
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-Matt Hittle
Posted at 02:57PM Dec 05, 2007 by College Republicans in Trade | Comments[0]
