Catering to a Congress that is largely hostile to international trade, USTR nominee Ron Kirk used his confirmation hearing testimony to assure the Senate Finance Committee that the administration plans to take a tougher stance on trade this year. Instead of focusing the trade agenda on looking for new opportunities to open markets with willing trade partners and leading multilateral trade negotiations to an ambitious conclusion, the administration vows to make trade policy “socially accountable.” Not only does this mean the U.S. will more aggressively use enforcement measures to protect special domestic interests, but will likely result in trade policy becoming less transparent as it is used as a vehicle to export U.S.-style labor and environmental regulations around the world rather than continue to efficiently open markets.
America needs those open markets. More than 30 percent of the U.S. economy – and millions of American jobs – depend on trade. With both the U.S. and global economy struggling to recover from the current economic downturn, America needs more than ever to strive to keep the wheels of trade greased. Promises to use trade policy to protect special interest groups, threats of aggressive trade enforcement, and intentions to use trade policy as a means to solve non-trade policy issues will not only fail to protect U.S. interests in the international economy, but also undermine America’s ability to lead and shape the global economy in the future.
Are we supposed to believe another tax cheat- -http://www.politicafe.com/pblog/?p=766
First Timothy Geithner, Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, and now Ron Kirk! Bill Richardson may have cheated differently.
It would be interesting to see who would argue against a Bill requiring all Federally Elected members to undergo a tax review. Also include the Presidential appointees and their staff.
God help US.
I have read some of Daniella Markham's articles on trade and I disagree with her. Its not about Free trade. Its about Fair Trade. Fair trade in my mind is if my country buys 1 millions dollars worth of goods from your country then your country should buy about 1 million dollars worth of goods from my country. (aka – balance of trade). That is the only way it can work in the long run. The reason the US is in financial trouble is because they buy alot of cheap walmart, etc products made in China and China doesn't buy much from us. And we spend a fortune on Arab oil and they buy little from us. You can't keep sending money overseas to buy things if they aren't buying something in return. Eventually you either run out of money or your print it which devalues it. If we are to return to a nation of great wealth this must be resolved. And corporations sending their jobs overseas just exacerbates the problem. In order for us to regain our status and reduce our debt we must AGAIN become a Manufacturing Nation. You can't be a nation of service industries – we must make things that others will want to buy.