The Public Policy: Clinton Trashes Trade
Bovard, James
by James Bovard Clinton Trashes Trade Seattle was merely his most visible protectionist moment. p resident Clinton's pretenses of being a free-trader exploded in flames in Seattle last...
...dumping abuses...
...9 In 1994 the U.S...
...An attempt to compel the U.S...
...tariffs and import quotas add the equivalent of a 5 ~ percent tariff surcharge to the price of imported clothing...
...Similar thinking was responsible for calling the WTO to Seattle last fall...
...Although Clinton trade officials backed down at the last minute in that fight, in early x999 they successfully browbeat the Japanese to impose quantitative restrictions on their steel imports to the U.S...
...In the chaos, it was overlooked that Clinton also helped scuttle the talks by refusing to address European and Japanese calls for the reform of U.S...
...The announcement sparked a furor in Cairo and threatened to disrupt the delicate Middle East peace process...
...But that's not how it's seen by the Commerce Departrnent, which now routinely convicts foreigners for charging Americans unfairly/ow prices...
...Dumping cases have inflated the price American businesses must pay for semiconductors, computer fiat panels, steel, railroad rails, and ball bearings...
...dollars...
...Clinton welcomed their presence: "I'm actually kind of glad all these demonstrators are coming to Seatfie," he said two weeks before the summit, "even though it may be kind of messy, because we ought to have a big global debate on this...
...It was an act of bad faith to summon delegates to a trade liberalization summit-and then announce on day one that most of their nations would get shafted...
...As long as White House aides kept saying on background that Clinton, deep<lown, still wanted free wade, it did not matter how many lame-brained protectionist schemes he proposed...
...In an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published on the talks' opening day, Clinton declared that a WTO working group "should develop these core labor standards, and then they ought to be a part of every trade agreement, and ultimately I would favor a system in which sanctions would come for violating any provision of a trade agreement...
...A few days after Brown left Egypt, the Commerce Department announced plans to slap import quotas on Egyptian shirts...
...The administration did make one maior concession to free-trade activism at this time...
...The Commerce Department routinely convicts foreigners for charging Americans unfairly low prices...
...Under Clinton, Commerce has ruled against foreign companies in 98 percent of dumping cases-ranging from Chilean salmon, to Chinese pencils and paper clips, to Romanian steel pipes, to Italian pasta, to Taiwanese roofing nails, to German printing presses, to Indonesian mushrooms...
...n late 1993, in the final days of the Uruguay Round of trade talks, U.S...
...to withdraw from the WTO is expected early next spring in the Senate...
...restrictions on textile imports...
...The feds impose import quotas on 3,ooo textile products, including tampons, typing ribbons, taws, twine, towels, tapestries, and ties...
...market...
...True to form, he made no effort to rebut the demonstrators he helped incite...
...And the people who feel like they've been shut out ought to be brought in and listened to...
...These rulings, which led to the imposition of heavy penalty tariffs, effectively locked hundreds of foreign companies out of the U.S...
...anti-dumping laws...
...A Congressional Budget Office study noted, "Most U.S...
...invaded Haiti--dropping troops on the island only hours after its military junta agreed to resign...
...Clinton called it a "workers' rights" provision...
...But at least the debacle was music to the ears orAl Gore and his Big Labor supporters...
...Clinton has probably done permanent damage to the WTO...
...The American Spectator _9 Fe b r u ar y 2 o o o 59...
...Consider the following actions from the administration's first two years: _9 In early 1993 Clinton announced that the U.S...
...Deprived of Haitian-made clothes, the U.S...
...9 In January 1994, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown visited Egypt and publicly criticized the government for its slowness in pursuing market reforms...
...9 On May x8, 1994, the Commerce Department announced that Americans would be prohibited from purchasing more than 1. 5 million Kenyan pillowcases in the following year...
...Yet a few weeks later it was Clinton's Commerce Deparlment that attacked the country...
...Clinton had made it clear that his highest goal was a new agreement that imposed penalty tariffs on imports from any nation that did not pay a global minimum wage...
...The amazing thing was that anyone ever saw him as anything more than an oldtime protectionist-opportunist...
...Regarding trade with Japan, in early 1994 Clinton announced, "I would like to have a focus on specific sectors of the economy, and I would like to obviously have specific results...
...would likely be sending ground troops to protect Macedonia against a possible Serb attack...
...at an annual rate of 24o,ooo and faced no restrictions...
...Clinton has fought doggedly to preserve and expand U.S...
...From 1993 to 1995, the Clinton administration was obsessed with forcing Japan to agree to compulsory quotas on purchases of American autos, auto parts, and other products...
...In recent years Japan and the European Union have bitterly complained about U.S...
...Kantor, a former Hollywood lawyer, wanted a name that would befit Clinton's salvation rhetoric and delusions of grandeur...
...But those weren't the signals Clinton was sending...
...In early 1999 there was no consensus or broad demand for another round of intemational trade talks...
...Dumping penalties also damage the competitiveness of America's leading industries...
...The Commerce Department slashed import levels by 67 percent to 8o,ooo wool suits a year...
...ProtecJAs~s BOVARD is the author of Freedom in Chains and The Fair Trade Fraud, both published by St...
...In his 1998 State of the Union address, Clinton boasted, "In the last five years, we have led the way in opening new markets, with z4o trade agreements that remove foreign barriers to products bearing the proud stamp 'Made in the USA.'" In reality, more than 16o of those agreements were actually one-sided edicts compelling foreign governments to restrict the amount of clothing they sold to American consumers...
...in reality, it was a noncompetition clause...
...for World Cup matches would be permitted to bring foreignmade clothes for personal use with them...
...pledged $7oo million in economic aid to Ukraine...
...While President Clinton never tires of lecturing about the need to respect diversity and to adore multiculturalism, much of his trade policy has come down to old-fashioned Jap-bashing...
...Trade Representative Mickey Kantor had a brilliant idea: change the name of a toothless international oversight body from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATF) to the World Trade Organization (WTO...
...Five days later, the administration re-imposed quotas on exports of Haitian clothing and textiles- the island's largest employer and leading earner of U.S...
...But after $18 million worth of Ukrainian wool coats penetrated the American mainland that year, the Commerce Department imposed quotas in November 1994 , effectively freezing future exports of one of the few competitive Ukrainian products at 1994 levels...
...The combination of high U.S...
...At the time, Kenyan pillowcases accounted for less than one percent of American pillowcase purchases...
...by James Bovard Clinton Trashes Trade Seattle was merely his most visible protectionist moment...
...Clinton imposed severe restrictions on silk from China, where almost all the exports originated...
...fair trade laws...
...p resident Clinton's pretenses of being a free-trader exploded in flames in Seattle last December...
...But planners at Clinton Legacy Central were hungry for a photo opportunity--something to canonize Clinton's reputation as a world leader...
...tionism is addictive, and Clinton's textile policy has been an unending series of alarms over incursions by perfidious foreigners...
...At the time, Macedonia was exporting men's and boys' wool suits to the U.S...
...Dumping is supposed to mean that a foreign company is selling for less in the U.S...
...After delegates had been hassled, assaulted, and denounced by protesters, Clinton arrived and declared delegates must "be prepared to give an answer" to the demonstrators...
...From the start, his administration sought maximum political and bureaucratic manipulation of trade--the same prescription Clinton favored for health care, the environment, antitrust, and countless other areas...
...Clinton's demand was similar to what protectionists have demanded for more than 13o yearsexcept that before Clinton no modern U.S...
...So much for Macedonia's most important export to the United States...
...In May 1995, his administration announced plans to slap loo percent penalty tariffs on 13 Japanese luxury cars to compel the Japanese to set specific quotas for the sales of U.S...
...One hundred thirty-four nations responded to the U.S...
...Silk imports have never faced high trade barriers because the U.S...
...summons to gather in Seattle for "the Clinton round...
...The Seattle fiasco greatly energized the enemies of free wade-which may be Clinton's final legacy...
...president had ever called for banning the products of poor nations from American markets...
...The U.S...
...Clinton was willing to risk the lives of zo,ooo American soldiersbut was unwilling to risk the profits of a single American textile manufacturer...
...antidumping activity-approximately four-fifths of active measures and approximately two-thirds of the products covered by the active measures--is against upstream goods [i.e., inputs...
...taxpayer would underwrite Haiti's losses as the administration deluged the island with foreign aid--including $45 million to protect the Haitian currency against instability and Sz 5 million to pay Haiti's foreign debts...
...If that weren't enough, he dropped this bomb...
...Clinton's machinations were aided by a trade-illiterate press corps...
...action helped revive Soviet-style central planning-as the government now dictated the number of coats specific factories were permitted to exporttothe U.S...
...than at home, or for less than its cost of production...
...Martin's Press...
...On May 4,1994, the Commerce Department announced that soccer teams arriving in the U.S...
...9 In February 1994, the Clinton administration carried offthe largest panty raid in history...
...has no silk worms and produces no silk clothing...
...No doubt most expected that the U.S., as it has since the end of World War II, would lead the way in lowering trade barriers...
...autos and auto parts in Japan...
...58 February 2000 " The American Spectator H ow fair are U.S...
...9 On September x9, 1994, the U.S...
...While it's true that Clinton did push through the NAFq'A and GATF treaties early in his first term, both treaties had been largely negotiated by the Bush administration, and most of the Clintonite changes made to them left both treaties more protectionist...
...But as silk clothing imports surged in the early 199o's--making such items affordable for the first time to the average consumer--the administration fretted these imports might undercut the sale of cotton and polyester American-made clothes...
...Even before the talks convened, leftist organizations and other opponents of capitalism and free trade promised to tum the meeting into a sham...
...The New York Times idiotically reported that Clinton sought to build a reputation as a "free trader with a social conscience" and that he pushed for the Seattle meetings because he "was convinced that he had one freetrade victory left...
Vol. 33 • February 2000 • No. 1
