Why Obama Shouldn’t Cave on Trade

The Democratic Party in the United States is divided over the benefits of free trade, and support has shriveled in recent years even among working-class Republicans. While many pundits and politicians insist that open trade enriches all, other analysts suggest that inserting conditions into free-trade agreements could protect human rights and the environment as well as stem rising resentment that comes with inequality. “Witnessing deindustrialization and community decay has persuaded most Americans that ’free trade’ is a formula for lost jobs, falling wages, economic insecurity, and shattered lives as suicides, abuse, family breakups, criminality, and alcohol and drug abuse follow in the wake of shuttered plants,” writes Roger Bybee, contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus. Republican John McCain supports open trade without reservation, while Democrat Barack Obama’s opposition lacks passion. Bybee urges, “Showing a forceful commitment to reshape global commerce around values such as decent living standards, environmental safeguards, and human rights could potentially exert a powerful appeal among independents, the base of the Christian Right, and economically-insecure Republican professionals.” Too many US voters of all stripes remain unconvinced that free trade and corporate globalization are but means to force global workers to compete by accepting the lowest wages. – YaleGlobal