Bush, Kerry Are Worlds Apart on Trade Issues
Senator speaks out for workers, environment. President's aides warn against protectionism.
By Evelyn Iritani, Times Staff Writer
By the time President Clinton left the White House, he had signed 200 trade agreements and earned a reputation as a persuasive advocate for tearing down barriers and opening markets across the globe.
But days before a tension-filled 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, Clinton declared that trade pacts should include tough provisions to protect workers and the environment. Officials from developing countries were furious, convinced the U.S. was simply trying to keep their products out of its markets. The meeting collapsed in acrimony.
When it comes to concern for how trade affects laborers and the environment, John Kerry could turn out to be Bill Clinton on steroids.
The Democratic presidential nominee maintains that the U.S. has not done nearly enough to ensure that expanded trade hasn't come at the expense of workers' rights or clean air and water. And he suggests that when companies from other nations commit abuses in these areas — forcing laborers to work in oppressive conditions or allowing factories to spew pollutants — it is both unconscionable and unfair, giving them a leg up against U.S. firms that must comply with strict regulations....
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Bush administration officials, warning that Kerry's stance could kill future trade deals, have branded the Democrats "economic isolationists."
If Kerry is elected, the U.S. is likely to pursue a "more protectionist approach," leading to "less openness of markets, fewer new trade agreements and more use of trade as a stick rather than a carrot," warned Michael Franc, director of government relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington....
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-trade15aug15,1,4793239.story?coll=la-home-business
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