AND THEN HE WONDERS WHY BRAZIL WON'T HELP HIM WITH IRAN?:

Will the President Confront His Base On Trade?: While a desire to strengthen the economy and to engage with other major nations of the world may dictate a more open trade policy, the administration is constrained by strong opposition within its base. (Philip I. Levy Thursday, March 4, 2010, The American)

Fortunately, a leading trade skeptic, Lori Wallach, has provided an essential guide to interpreting the administration’s trade agenda. She praises the administration for dropping last year’s call for rapid action on the Panama free trade agreement, for not requesting trade negotiating authority, and for no longer suggesting that climate policy should respect trade rules. She warns that there is no consensus on the TPP, that the administration has failed to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement, and that the administration is misguided in its approach to talks at the World Trade Organization. On the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea, and Panama, Wallach writes:

Given the outstanding issues USTR listed fall far short of the minimum fixes identified by members of Congress, and labor, consumer and environmental groups, successfully resolving only USTR’s list of issues means whenever such pacts were brought to Congress, a majority of Democrats would oppose them.

And thus we can see the big picture. While a desire to strengthen the economy and to engage with other major nations of the world may dictate a more open trade policy, the administration is constrained by strong opposition within its base. This is a problem that President Obama brought upon himself (Wallach repeatedly refers to campaign promises unfulfilled). Until he is willing to take on trade skeptics directly, the president’s trade policy will largely consist of platitudes and promises of future action, all to be taken sometime safely beyond the next election.

Passing free trade over the heads of his own party helped Bill Clinton appear a man of the sensible middle.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 4, 2010 7:30 AM