It looks like the Obama administration may turn more to fair trade instead of free trade if new commerce secretary Gary Locke has his way:
WASHINGTON -- Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in an interview that he will push for "fair trade" and said countries seeking open trade with the U.S. should abide by "minimum standards" for environmental and safety regulations.
"I've always believed in fair trade. I believe it's appropriate that there's minimum standards that other countries should abide by if we're allowing their products to come in to the United States," Mr. Locke said during an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
"If the apple growers of Washington State have to abide by all these environmental and health and human safety standards and the workers of other countries don't have to, it puts Washington State apples at a disadvantage," said Mr. Locke, a former governor of Washington State. "Same thing with Boeing airplanes. If other countries are able to significantly subsidize the cost of development and production of an airplane then it puts Boeing at a competitive disadvantage and it hurts the aerospace workers of America."
This has to be the Democratic approach. The country has tried "free trade" the Republican way for decades now and found the only way it can actually work is by trashing environmental standards, crushing and de-skilling workers, and by letting the market foist on hapless consumers whatever poisonous crap might make someone a short-term buck.
Obama says he wants to improve education and training in order to strengthen the competitive position of American workers. He wants to protect the environment. He wants to strengthen the ability of workers to unionize. All of those things run directly counter to trade agreements that are all about freedom for capital but not for labor, and all about externalizing corporate costs onto the lobbyist-less and unorganized citizenry.
The Obama administration hasn't articulated its trade policies yet, but this is at least encouraging that someone is thinking about moving in the right direction.