Reply #40: Yes, We Need FAIR Trade

[Nederland]

The question is, whose definition of "fair" are you going to use--Mexico's, China's, or the US's? To think that the countries that are negotiating with us are simply going to roll over and accept whatever definition of "fair" we stipulate is naive. These countries want to trade with the US, and they are willing to reduce their own protective trade barriers in order to achieve that. However, if you stipulate that these countries are also going to have to live by US notions of what constitutes proper labor and environmental standards you are dreaming. They will not reduce their own trade barriers unless they feel they have a chance of competing, and if you impose US style environmental and labor laws they will not feel like they are getting a good deal and will simply chose to remain closed.

Its important to understand just how third world nations view first world nations right now, and I see little evidence that fair trade advocates do. In the final GATT round, third world countries were promised that first world countries would reduce their agricultural subsidies in the next round of trade talks. After first world countries refused to live up to those promises, the third world countries walked out in disgust. They feel that they had lived up to their end of the bargain and then gotten screwed by the first world. Therefore, to think that this is an environment where they will feel receptive to additional labor and environmental demands by first world countries is to be sorely out of touch. The third world wants the first world to start living up to the promises it has made, not to make additional demands.

This is why I truly believe that John Kerry really understands the trade problem far better than people like Kucinich. I don't remember the specifics, but in the pre-Iowa debate, John Kerry was asked if he thought that the US should demand that Mexico establish a $5 dollar and hour wage. His response, delivered with an eye roll, was: "well, we can ask...". His response demonstrated a real understanding of the trade problem: there are two sides present in negotiating a trade deal, and they don't agree on much. To assume that they do is a receipt for having no future trade deals whatsoever. Perhaps that is what they really want.