U.S. Trade Winds No Longer Prevail

Both in the United States and in Latin America, leading proponents of bilateral and regional trade agreements believe that liberalized trade and investment rules are the best—if not the only—path to economic development, while critics charge that such deals do more harm than good. Lately, however, the U.S. government's ability to use free trade agreements and trade preference bills as instruments of foreign and economic policy is dwindling. Although the Iraq War and Republican malfeasance were the main issues in the November 2006 midterm elections, winning candidates also made an issue of the adverse impact of free trade agreements and corporate globalization. Unwilling to use what political capital they have left, the lame-duck Republican Congress let the president know that they were unwilling to consider the free trade agreements before the elections. Both political parties are increasingly wary of trade measures that may increase the massive U.S. trade deficit and anger voters tired of seeing U.S. jobs lost to overseas production. A six-month extension of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) gained congressional approval the final day of the 2006 session, leaving the four Andean countries still uncertain whether the trade preferences initially granted in 1991 will extend beyond mid-2007. Unlike FTA, ATPDEA is a nonreciprocal accord that grants unilateral trade preferences to the Andean nations in exchange for their cooperation in the U.S.-led drug war and as a way to promote legitimate export businesses. Latin American policy advocates from left, right, and center support the reauthorization of the Andean trade preferences, although they cite different reasons. While liberal advocacy groups commonly point to the adverse economic impact any termination of preferences would have on workers and businesses, right-of-center analysts stress the negative geopolitical implications of ending the trade preferences. Right-wing think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation are among the most vigorous supporters of continuing the Andean trade preferences, even if these countries decide not to sign FTAs with the United States. "The future of the Andean region is in play." That's how Roger Noriega, the Bush administration's former top Latin America policy chief, describes the precarious state of U.S.-Andean relations. Noriega, currently a visiting scholar at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, was one of many voices in Washington urging Congress to renew the Andean trade preferences that expire at year's end. http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4132

Note: http://americas.irc-onl...