THE NIXON RULE--"WATCH WHAT WE DO...":

Obama to see light on trade (Geoffrey Garrett, December 01, 2008, The Australian)

KEVIN Rudd and his Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation and G20 colleagues have twice pledged loyalty to free trade. But the leader whose support matters most, US president-elect Barack Obama, was not there. What is worse, his protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail has free traders worried.

As the credit crisis becomes a sharp US recession, Obama will have powerful political incentive to appease a middle America that believes free trade has done more harm than good.

But history in the form of the previous Democratic president, Bill Clinton, gives reason for hope that Obama will undergo a quick conversion from trade sceptic to free-trade champion.

The 1990s are looked back on as the halcyon days of free trade in America. What is often forgotten is that Clinton was quite protectionist on the electoral stump in 1992. But, once in office, he signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, ratified the Uruguay round of global trade liberalisation, helped create the World Trade Organisation and then pushed for China's entry into it.