\u201cThere was a confluence of security and economic considerations,\u201d says Harvard political scientist Jeffry Frieden. \u00a0U.S. officials recognized that \u201cgiving [our allies] access to the American market was a lot cheaper than foreign aid.\u201d Besides, U.S.\u2009economic superiority was taken for granted. Before the war, U.S. and German chemical companies had been rivals. \u201cBy 1945, we didn\u2019t have to worry about the German chemical industry,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true, as Frieden notes, that this consensus weakened in the 1970s. Once Europe and Asia rebuilt, their exports \u2014 of steel, shoes, televisions, cars \u2014 threatened U.S. jobs. The Reagan administration pressured foreign governments to impose \u201cvoluntary\u201d limits on some exports to the United States. Still, the pursuit of political ends by economic means remains at the core of U.S. trade policy.<\/p>\n
All this provides context for the controversy over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the trade negotiation among 12\u2009countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam). Together, these nations represent almost 40 percent of the world economy, with the United States and Japan accounting for about four-fifths of that.<\/p>\n
Negotiations cover many issues. Japan has tariffs of 600 percent or more on rice. Presumably, these would be reduced or eliminated. Although the average trade-weighted U.S. tariff is 1.4 percent, there are exceptions. U.S. tariffs on shoes range from 11 percent to 70 percent; Vietnam wants them curbed. Talks also involve less traditional issues: limits on subsidies to state-owned companies; patent protection, especially for drug companies; rules governing where computer data must be stored.<\/p>\n
![\"TPP\"](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/TPP.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nRobert Samuelson writes: The trouble with our trade debates is that people assume they\u2019re only about economics. Since World War II, U.S. trade policy has also been a pillar of U.S. foreign policy. In the early postwar decades, America encouraged … Continue reading