Free Trade Is Wonderful, but . . . : Promising hemispheric accord in Miami also raises nagging doubts

In the last month alone the resolutely commerce-oriented Clinton Administration has pushed a dramatic free-trade agenda that included the ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a gradual dismantling of regional barriers among Asian Pacific Economic Council members and, just this past weekend, a landmark agreement among 34 Western Hemisphere nations to create the world’s largest free-trade zone.

Remember President Clinton’s famous campaign slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Clinton has now taken that domestic slogan international.

No question, the prospects from free trade do look promising. Booming exports undoubtedly helped the United States weather the worst of the recession, not to mention the disruptive ratcheting down of the defense industry. More foreign markets basically mean more places to peddle American goods and services. That should translate into jobs for those who produce goods and services here that are in demand abroad.

So why isn’t everyone happy? If free trade and open markets are supposed to help to bring economic security to the United States, why then do so many people feel insecure these days? Because what’s in store is not clear at all and the benefits to be reaped might be uneven at best. What about those industries that may not be able to compete profitably against cheaper imports? While President Clinton chirps cheerily about the number of jobs world trade creates, and it will indeed create many new jobs, there has been a lot of debate about whether all this new employment will assure a better or worse standard of living than the old jobs, or the same. No one, including the President, seems willing to discuss the fear that booming trade may be better for consumers than for workers.

So as the U.S. economy recovers nicely, we all desperately want to believe the luminous vision of a more bountiful America, thanks in part to forward-looking free-trade agreements symbolized by this weekend’s Summit of Americas. But so much of the free-trade dialogue seems conducted with upbeat buzzwords that tend to gloss over the new worries. Life, after all, is not just about business.