ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9609030136
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
ONE OF the uglier aspects of Ross Perot's ego-inspired campaign for the presidency is his continued attack on policies intended to encourage freer international trade.
Pat Buchanan, too, got mileage out of protectionist pandering in his failed run for the Republican nomination. Enough so that the GOP platform refers to trade deficits as "siphoning American wealth into the hands of foreigners." (In fact, the amount of trade matters much more than whether there's a temporary deficit or not - and the more trade the better.)
Buchanan thankfully is out, however, and Perot is in. And there remains a market for anti-trade demagoguery, which Perot is tapping now as he did in 1992. Democrats have their own advocates of higher trade barriers, among Big Labor and its Democrat friends in Congress.
Perot is still attacking the North American Free Trade Agreement, the creation of a World Trade Organization and other symbols of a more open system of international trade. Pushing that button can win some votes.
But, given the many benefits of free trade - from lower prices, higher product quality and increased export opportunities, to establishing the foundations for prosperity in a global economy and more peaceable relations among nations - the patriotic thing for President Clinton and GOP candidate Bob Dole to do would be to emphatically repudiate Perot's protectionism. Both of them. The sooner the better.
LENGTH: Short : 34 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB