Big Foot, Unicorns, and Pro-Trade DemocratsAre they fantasies after all?

By Daniel Ikenson, Assoc. Director, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute: Democratic leaders have been asserting that, despite the hostile rhetoric of their rank and file, they view trade openness and engagement as indispensable to U.S. economic and security objectives. That with some accommodation of Democratic priorities on labor and environmental issues, the administration and Congress can work together to advance a bipartisan trade agenda. The credibility of those assertions is about to be tested. The recently concluded but yet-to-be ratified U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement will reveal whether the Democratic congressional leadership can be trusted to continue the time-tested tradition of promoting economic growth through liberalized trade. South Korea is one of the fastest growing markets for U.S. exports, the seventh-largest U.S. trade partner, and the world’s tenth-largest economy. Its citizens enjoy a per-capita income of $24,000, placing them among the world’s richest. A free-trade agreement would increase U.S. national income by an estimated $17 billion to $43 billion per year.

But already opposition is building among Democrats, despite the fact that labor and the environment are virtual non-issues. ... Spearheading the opposition is House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade chairman, Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI). Levin’s opposition is predicated on the agreement’s failure to incorporate an absurd proposal that he, House Ways and Means chairman Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), and 13 other members - hailing mostly from Michigan - foisted upon the U.S. trade representative in the waning weeks of the negotiations. Over the past couple of years, U.S. exports to Korea have been growing fast, while U.S. imports from Korea have been falling. U.S. goods exports to Korea increased by over 23 percent, to $32.5 billion in 2006 from $26.4 billion in 2004. During the same period, U.S. goods imports from Korea declined to $44.7 billion from $45.0 billion. On a per capita basis, Koreans are already buying far more from Americans than the other way around. American businesses are doing quite well in the Korean market. ... Now is the time for pro-trade Democrats to prove that they exist. . . . [Read More]

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