Article
At the forefront of an aggressive free trade agenda on Capital Hill is former BCSIA Research Scholar Robert B. Zoellick. With the U.S. economy slowing, the stock market unsteady, and energy prices steadily rising, the Congressional mood is predictably protectionist. But Zoellick, President George W. Bush''s new trade representative and a fiery defender of free trade, is hard at work cajoling Congress to open up America''s markets. "We have to broaden the base of support in Congress for open trade," he declared.
Zoellick darkly warns that the U.S. is in danger of being left behind by the new global economy: of 130 free-trade agreements around the globe, the U.S. is party to only two. With that in mind, he is pushing Congress to move on a long list of trade issues. Primarily, Zoellick wants "fast track" legislation - what he terms "trade promotion authority" - empowering the president to negotiate trade deals that cannot be amended by Congress. Such legislation, Zoellick hopes, will allow the Bush administration to successfully fulfill its ambitious trade agenda.
Alex Fernandez, a past President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Chile, recently berated Zoellick for American slowness in ratifying Chile''s entry to the North American Free Trade Agreement. "After you date a girl for ten years, and she keeps telling you she loves you but she keeps putting the wedding date off, you stop believing that she''ll marry you and you move on to another girl," he said. Zoellick responded in stride. "I dated my wife for six years before we got married, and we''ve been married for 21 years." The battle may be slightly uphill, but Zoellick seems ready for the task.
(Seth Jaffe contributed to this article.)