Opposing Conservative and Liberal Views: Foreign Trade Policy

Conservative (CON): Turning to foreign trade matters, Obama’s and the Democrat’s push for so-called “fair trade” in place of our current free trade policies will be disruptive of our relationships with our trading partners and thus counter-productive. Hanging in the balance are the pending free trade agreements with Columbia and with Central America, agreements that are essential if we are to strengthen the economies of those countries and help them to withstand the aggressive policies of Venezuela’s Chavez. But, the push for so called “fair trade” has implications that reach beyond our hemisphere. As a policy concept, “fair trade” is essentially a reactionary attempt to undo the effects of globalization and , for that reason, it is fatally flawed. Globalization will proceed with unabated ferocity and our challenge as a nation is to make it work for us. Swimming against the current is not a viable option.

Liberal (LIB): To stop American jobs from going overseas, we should help other countries create indigenous economies that raise the standard of living in underdeveloped regions of the world. That’s the kind of globalization that I can believe in, one that builds up others without degrading us. Cheap goods from low-wage countries do not make globalization work for us. Creating markets for our superior technology does. Obama will see that America is protected from harmful foreign trade policies.

CON: Obama is supporting a harmful foreign trade policy.

LIB: Tell me more. Proof by assertion is not proof of anything.

CON: In the previous go around, we were discussing free trade vs. fair trade. I asserted that fair trade was harmful. Abeam appears to be moving with his party towards support for fair trade and that is what is harmful. I may not have proved that to you, but it is my opinion. I suggest you keep tabs on this issue. Whichever way Abeam goes will have ramifications for the economy.

LIB: What is “Abeam”? Are you having some kind of keyboard malfunction or this that some new cute conservative sobriquet for Obama? Whatever your answer, be assured that “fair” trade is not an epithet for “free” trade. In my opinion, there is no such thing as free trade. No sets of trading partners are equals. The object of foreign trade is now and always has been to sell higher value objects to a trading partner than is bought from them, thus insuring a positive balance of payments or, as it is referred to in capitalist terms, making a profit. Trade costs one trading partner or the other something. Our present trade policy has many costs for the U.S. Our balance of payments is negative. The value of the dollar is declining relative to other currencies, most notably the Euro. American wages are stagnant, while corporate profits are enlarged. America’s manufacturing base is diminished by low wage manufacturing rivals. We have to learn how to profit from globalization rather than use it as a source of cheap goods that our diminished earning capacity population can afford. I’m ready for a change.