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Trade: USTR nominee Ron Kirk mocked the U.S.' expansion of free trade as "deal fever" at his confirmation Monday and vowed to force "social" diktats on trade partners before new pacts can be signed. This isn't free trade. Unfortunately, dour statements on trade from the man who would be the U.S. trade representative are not surprising.
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RON KIRK: NO TRADE
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) nominee Ron Kirk mocked the U.S.' expansion of free trade as "deal fever" at his confirmation Monday and vowed to force "social" diktats on trade partners before new pacts can be signed.
To start, Kirk dismissed existing free trade treaties as mindless chits instead of carefully negotiated pacts done on an equal basis with other countries. That ignores the fact that free trade has opened vast markets for U.S. companies, whose exports will be key to our economic recovery:
- Free trade with Mexico increased trade fourfold over the last decade, making it our third-largest trading partner and enabling U.S. companies to sell a billion dollars worth of goods to Mexicans each day.
- It has put an extra $2,000 in every American family's pocket and increased jobs — one out of four jobs here is now linked to global trade.
- South Korea's pact, which would open a market to U.S. exporters as big as Mexico's, was called "simply unfair."
- Kirk said the United States would "step away from that" if South Korea didn't bow to new terms dictated by the Obama administration (and its Big Labor financiers).
It's not as if these nations haven't jumped through hoops already. Colombia altered its constitution and revamped its court system on the promise of the deal's passage; now, it's getting new orders.
If the United States foists social projects on friends, rejects new markets and lets China snap away the spoils, it will be the biggest loser.
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