U.S. Trade Politics: Seen This Movie Before

Those of you who follow U.S. trade policy know how ugly things can sometimes get. In March of last year, I wrote a lengthy post about the conversion of Barack Obama from staunch opponent of trade liberalization to someone that had had some kind of epiphany and been reborn as a proponent of free trade (see link here).

In that post, I also foreshadowed a debate over Trade Promotion Authority that is now upon us. The U.S. Senate is poised to debate, and probably pass, a TPA bill in early may that would delegate negotiating authority to the President to complete two signature trade initiatives; the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). For those of you unfamiliar with how TPA actually works, I will here shamelessly plug a journal article on the subject I wrote for Diplomatic History in 2012 (I hope Oxford Journals will forgive me for posting it). I still think it's one of the better pieces I've ever written.... Once out of the Senate, a version of the TPA legislation will have to also pass the House. Regardless of the final outcome, the TPA will reveal the deep divisions in both parties over trade (link).

What's amazing is how the debates over trade policy in the United States repeatedly descend to the some of the lowest forms of populist rhetoric. The TPA debate is already part of the 2016 Presidential election campaign as candidates, declared or otherwise, are asked to go on the record regarding their support for TPA. Depending on which way the wind happens to be blowing that day, candidates will declare themselves for or against (See story). What's more troublesome is how readily some of these candidates are willing to pander to anti-trade opponents. These days, it is far safer politically to be against trade liberalization than for it. It's also intellectually lazier! It's far easier to turn to the xenophobia of blaming foreigners for labor market woes than it is to make a more sophisticated case for trade; a topic I also dealt with in my post from a year ago.

As a reminder of the kind of simplistic nonsense that gets peddled about trade liberalization, I thought I'd post here a video that I like to show my students every fall. It's not without flaws, but it makes a strong point about the politics of trade liberalization (it happens to be funny too). The video features clips from the 2008 presidential campaign. As you watch the debate over TPA unfold in the weeks ahead, you might note how often we see more of the same....