The Democrats' trades wars

Mort Kondracke:

Having failed to convince fellow Republicans of the merits of comprehensive immigration reform, President Bush now faces the even more difficult task of defending free trade against protectionist Democrats.

A tide of populism, protectionism, nationalism and xenophobia is washing over the country, fueled by right-wing radio talk show hosts, CNN firebrand Lou Dobbs -- and legitimate concerns that U.S. workers are falling behind in the global struggle for jobs and good wages.

Anti-globalization is a worldwide phenomenon, in fact, that's being exploited by populist demagogues such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, whose influence is spreading in Latin America.

Even though his influence is at its all-time lowest ebb, Bush somehow needs to mount a campaign to convince Americans that their continued prosperity depends on an open world trading system.

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Last July, the House passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement by a mere two votes, with only 15 Democrats in support. That history bodes ill for Bush's upcoming trade agenda, including renewal of "fast-track" negotiating authority and the already-negotiated agreements with Peru and Colombia.

The House last week even declined to pass an agreement with Vietnam that totally benefited the U.S. by opening Vietnam's markets to U.S. goods, in the process embarrassing Bush as he was headed to the Asian economic summit in Hanoi.

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Moreover, a Democratic Congress is likely to increase farm subsidies, making it all the more difficult to win the market-opening concessions from Europe that are needed to revive the stagnant Doha round of world trade negotiations.

The administration needs to mount a four-part strategy: a vigorous public education process to change attitudes on the merits of trade, an aggressive effort to fight trade cheating by China and other rivals, a serious upgrade of programs to help workers cope with the effects of trade, and a change of policy on including labor and environmental standards in future trade agreements.

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There is much more. What Democrats are advocating is lowing the standard of living of most Americans in order to increase it for a few of their constituents. That is what their war against Walmart has been about and it is what their trade wars are about. The administration needs to do a better job of making this case. The Bush administration can effectively block legislation that Democrats may offer to restrict trade, but what it probably cannot do is get authorization for new trade agreements. It needs to use that leverage to get the countries where we are negotiating to come to an agreement now before it is too late.