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
