THE CHIEF STANDS ALONE:

Bush avows free trade despite Dem attacks (MARTIN CRUTSINGER, 4/09/04, AP)

Never mind the Democratic broadsides about soaring trade deficits and lost manufacturing jobs. President Bush is campaigning as an unrepentant free trader and criticizing Democrat John Kerry as an "economic isolationist."

Bush's secretary of Commerce, Don Evans, has gone even further, saying opponents of open trade are "waving a surrender flag rather than the American flag."

Yet for all the administration's tough rhetoric, some members of the president's own party are growing increasingly worried that his staunch defense of free trade won't sit well with voters concerned about jobs, including the shifting of jobs overseas.

"The Democrats are going to play on people's fears of losing jobs and outsourcing in a shameless way and we need to be more aggressive in answering back," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Graham said he was disappointed that the administration is refusing to support a bipartisan effort in Congress to penalize China with higher tariffs for linking its currency directly to the dollar, a practice that American manufacturers contend gives Chinese companies as much as a 40 percent price advantage.

Despite the GOP worries, Bush and his administration are pushing ahead with new trade deals.

Agreements with Australia, Morocco, five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic have been completed and are awaiting congressional approval. Bush also has directed his trade team, led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, to start negotiations with Thailand, Bahrain, Panama, Colombia and possibly other South American countries.

So it only took three years for folks to figure out that not only is George Bush not a protectionist but the main proponent of free trade in American politics. Steel tariffs turned out to be the small price paid for the great gift of Fast Track authority and the president who was supposedly buckling to political pressure now stands nearly alone against it instead.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 10, 2004 1:48 PM