FW: Free Trade of the Americas

[Karen Watters Cole]

MALLABY: A Go-Go Approach to Globalization @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44034-2002Aug4.html “People talk about the Bush administration's divided foreign policy, with unilateralists at the Pentagon battling diplomats at State. But the Bush team also is split on international economic policy. On one side, you've got tortured sideline-sitters at the Treasury, who criticize emerging-market bailouts while approving them, who criticize development aid while promising to expand it. On the other side you've got U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, who practices an amazing brand of turbo-activism. … The Bush economic team is mostly reactive; it has led on the bad tax cut and on precious little else. Its promise of extra development aid, made after months of griping about it, was forced by the March summit on development in Monterrey, Mexico, and by the fear that the United States would look miserly if others increased their aid budgets. The administration pleads that it had to consider aid's effectiveness before calling for an increase. But everybody knows that aid effectiveness is crucial. By droning on about it, the administration was delaying needed aid expansion and reinventing the wheel. …Having defied all the pessimists (whose ranks I've joined, at some points), Zoellick is moving into overdrive. Armed with trade promotion authority, he can target three goals: He can press ahead with global trade talks, he can pursue regional pacts such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas or he can go after bilateral free-trade deals. Which goal will be Zoellick's priority? The answer is obvious. All three. Maybe this is lunacy. Zoellick heads a small agency that is overworked already; aspiring to a Free Trade Area of the Americas seems like a hopeless long shot given the anti-American populism that is sweeping the region. But when America leads, things happen; and American leadership in one set of trade talks creates momentum in the rest. If the Central Americans want their own trade deal with Zoellick, they'll have to support his drive for regional and global trade pacts; if Asians see progress in Zoellick's Latin American discussions, they'll want a World Trade Organization deal for fear of being left behind. This vision is certainly ambitious; say nay if you want. But remember that Zoellick's naysayers haven't fared well recently.” SAMUELSON: Can Brazil be saved? @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15032-2002Aug13.html