HOW LONG UNTIL WE READ THAT BILL CLINTON IS SERVING AS THE UR'S DICK MORRIS?:

Bring Free Trade to the Far East (National Review, 11/16/11)

We were cheered by President Obama's commitment, at this week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, to the completion of the nine-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement... [...]


The final goal of the United States should be a high-quality, pan-Asian free-trade agreement that includes Japan, and eventually China -- the kind of agreement that can help bring poor Asian nations out of poverty even as it benefits consumers and creates jobs in the U.S. But pursuing this goal does not preclude us from pursuing others, and we should not be afraid to go both bigger -- continued aggressive pursuit of the Doha round -- and smaller. The TPP would be a major step toward the realization of free trade in the region, while the continued expansion and harmonization of our portfolio of bilateral trade agreements, on the model of our accords with South Korea, Australia, and Singapore, would be a sturdy hedge should TPP stall. None of these tacks are mutually exclusive.

Though the nitty-gritty of free-trade negotiations can be among the nittiest and grittiest features of relations among nations, the upshot of those agreements is bracingly simple: When it comes to free trade, the more the better. 

Posted by oj at November 16, 2011 6:15 AM
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