ALL THOSE EUROPEANS who live for the day when John Kerry will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States should have paused before cheering his selection of John Edwards as his running mate which they uniformly think will add to Kerry's chances of moving into the White House.
Edwards was the leading proponent of protectionism during his losing campaign for the presidential nomination. He lost, but Kerry won in part because he out Edwards-ed the young senator from North Carolina by accusing businessmen who outsourced jobs of betraying America.
It is Kerry, of course, and not Edwards, who will determine trade policy should the voters decide to sentence George W. Bush to join his father in retirement. But Kerry's choice for vice president shows that he believes some form of protectionism to be a vote winner, and a necessary pay-off to the trade unions that are putting their foot-soldiers and cash to work to get pro-Kerry voters registered and to the polls.
There is special irony in the massive support for Kerry in the United Kingdom. Just last week the British government argued in a policy paper that the old mercantilist mantra, "exports good, imports bad" has passed its sell-by date. It is that sort of mercantilism that Bush is trying to persuade American voters is against their interests. Which is why he has been pushing for a new global trade liberalizing round, and negotiating bilateral trade-opening deals along the lines of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Kerry
has promised to re-examine and tighten all existing treaties, and to insist on labor and environmental terms in new agreements that would most certainly disadvantage the developing countries that are supposed to be the object of the affections of Europe's left. With the exception of France, of course, which clings to agricultural protectionism that dooms Africa's poor to perpetual poverty.
Kerry's ire is aimed especially at the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) that Bush has negotiated and that is now before Congress. That agreement would eliminate duties on more than half of U.S. farm goods and 80 percent of American exports of consumer and industrial products to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and, eventually, the Dominican Republic. Kerry has asked congressional Democrats to withhold approval until he can revise the agreement to make it more acceptable to the trade unions.
America's voters might just be inclined to heed the siren song of the respectable protectionism that Kerry sings. Recall: when hard-right Pat Buchanan tried to sell his brand of outright protectionism, Americans weren't buying. Kerry is subtler: adjust the tax code to make overseas investment relatively less attractive; penalize outsourcers; include in trade agreements provisions that wipe out the labor-cost advantage of poor countries; stall on reopening the Doha round of trade-opening negotiations.
All wrapped in the personable package of John Edwards, who proved his ability to persuade middle-class Americans that he is on their side during his successful career as a trial lawyer. A Gallup poll shows that 83 percent of Americans believe that the job impact of outsourcing is an important issue in this year's election, and 47 percent fear that they or a friend or relative will lose their job to overseas competition. Kerry and Edwards plan to preach to that choir.
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