By proclamation of the President, May 17 – May 23 is World Trade Week. As his proclamation notes, the President believes that trade “is a significant and increasingly important contributor to U.S. economic growth.” To increase trade, he is promising “a plan of action” to build on current trade agreements and complete the Doha Development Round.
This is good news and the CEO-members of the American Business Conference will do everything they can to support the President in this work. So far, though, the signals from the White House have not been good:
- the Colombia free trade deal remains blocked in the House by Speaker Pelosi while the bilateral agreement with South Korea seems entirely off the radar screen;
- on the matter of Mexican trucking, the U.S. is in violation of its Nafta obligations;
- there has been no discussion to date about sending legislation to Congress giving the President trade negotiating authority; and,
- the President’s proposals on the “reform” of international tax policy would subject American firms doing business overeas to an extra layer of taxation, above and beyond the current business income tax which is one of the highest in the developed world.
We take the President at his word when he says that the United States must be globally competitive. But to adopt policies to help make that happen, the Administration must first disenthrall itself from the kind of anti-business, protectionist attitudes that currently tincture so much of the discussion about trade.