THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 17, 1994 TAG: 9411170010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
For a world port like Hampton Roads, free trade and more and more of it is the key to greater prosperity. There are plenty of issues on which President Clinton has been too liberal and too much the old Democrat. But on the issue of trade, he's consistently been on the right side.
First, he pushed hard for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) once in office, even though he had opposed it when running against President Bush in 1992. Favoring it entailed alienating protectionist labor unions, a traditional underpinning of any Democratic president. But Clinton apparently saw that passage was in the best interest of the country and went ahead.
Now he's pushing hard for a lame-duck session of Congress to pass the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in December. To get it, he will once again have to buck the left wing of his own party and the isolationist fringe of the Republican Party. He will have to depend on the kindness of moderates, largely Republicans.
And now, in the 18-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Jakarta, Clinton has presided over a Pacific Rim agreement that promises to open up trade in a region that accounts for half of the world's economic activity and 41 percent of all international trade.
Five powers - the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - have agreed to eliminate trade barriers by 2010. Others, including China and South Korea, have committed to complete the process by 2020.
Skeptics will wonder if any agreement with a 25-year time horizon can be taken seriously, but if the powerhouse economies of Japan and the United States make good, the developing countries in the region will have a real incentive to join the club.
Furthermore, it is not so long ago that there was real concern that the world could solidify into Asian, European and American trading blocs which would war against one another and erect insurmountable barriers. Instead, this APEC agreement is another in a series of steps leading in the other direction.
It wouldn't have happened if a president notorious for wavering hadn't been steadfast on this issue and if a congressional minority often dismissed as naysayers and obstructionists hadn't cooperated. It is a reminder that some issues are too serious for partisan bickering and grandstanding. Protectionist Naderites on the left fringe and isolationists off the radar to the right have opposed a global trade liberalization. But so far the center has held.
Democrats like Clinton and Daniel Patrick Moynihan and a majority of Republicans see that global trade is an idea whose time has come and that our future prosperity depends on it. Now they must again cooperate to pass GATT and continue to pursue more of the same, not just via the APEC agreement but in Latin America and wherever else opportunity presents itself. by CNB