Fair Trade

Plans for Belcamp-based network security company SafeNet Inc. to buy a British Internet security firm are being investigated by the British government for possibly stifling competition, the United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading announced yesterday. SafeNet announced last month a $150 million cash deal to buy Cambridge, England-based nCipher PLC. But the Office of Fair Trading, a government watchdog for consumers that aims to maintain competitive markets, said yesterday that the deal would bring together two of the U.K.'s largest suppliers of encryption and decryption technology, possibly thwarting competition and leading to less innovation and higher prices for consumers.

WASHINGTON -- Setting out an "agenda for American action" in the global economy, President Clinton endorsed a tough, free-but-fair trade policy yesterday and called on Japan and Germany to join the U.S. as "engines" of worldwide recovery.For the first time since he became president, Mr. Clinton outlined his international economic policy and rejected protectionism."In the face of all the pressures to do the reverse, we must compete, not retreat," Mr. Clinton said.In an effort to reassure American workers who fear loss of jobs to cheap foreign labor, he said that open and competitive global commerce would "enrich us as a nation," and pointed out that each $1 billion in exports created 20,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs.

BEAUTIFUL Persian cats, two spoiled dogs, a sailboat and each other. ''I guess you could say this is our life,'' says Lillian Davidson, who lives in Perry Hall with her husband, Robert.He caters to the dogs, a dachshund and a Rottweiler, and she owns and shows Persian cats.Sandtraps Snappy Affair is her blue-cream Persian, not yet a year old, who took a second in the blue-cream Persian class at the Chesapeake Cat Show this year. His color is a mottled cream and pale blue-gray.According to breed information, the longhaired Persian cats are called Persians in the United States and Longhairs in England.

WASHINGTON -- By a clear majority, the House passed a bill yesterday that would set strict limits on steel imports, as many lawmakers in both parties criticized the Clinton administration for having allowed cheaper foreign steel to flood the U.S. market.The bill's fate in the Senate appears less certain, and President Clinton's senior advisers are recommending a veto. Nevertheless, its advocates proclaimed the legislation a much-needed response to efforts by foreign producers to swamp U.S. ports with under-priced steel.

GENEVA -- The lights at the World Trade Organization headquarters near Lake Geneva are on late these nights. The 135-nation organization, responsible for seeing that the export-import trade in each of its members is conducted fairly and freely, is preparing for a gathering in Seattle on Tuesday that could outline the foreign-trade rules of the next century.The meeting, bringing together trade ministers of its members, is expected to take up questions as varied as health hazards of genetically engineered food and French quotas on American movies and television programs.

AS GLOBAL warming treaty talks ended yesterday in Argentina, the 160 nations were divided on the important nTC concept of emissions trading.Essentially, it allows one country to pay another country for its unused "pollution rights" assigned by the international agreement. The pollution is emissions of "greenhouse gases," mostly from burning carbon fuels, into the atmosphere where they trap heat and warm the planet.The United States wants unlimited ability to buy these emission rights to help meet its pledge to reduce warming gases by 7 percent from the 1990 base level.

William Haynes refuses to go on insulin. The retired Chicago UPS driver was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes 15 years ago and was supposed to start giving himself insulin injections two years ago. But he says swallowing daily pills for his diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol is enough of a chore. As a boy, he helped his mother and grandmother with their insulin shots. Now 59, he has decided: "I don't want to be hooked up on insulin for the rest of my life." Chronic illnesses account for 70 percent of all deaths in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

President Barack Obama is initiating an "Insourcing American Jobs" dialogue with top business leaders. The latter are always looking for tax breaks and special benefits, and this could quickly degenerate into pleas for special treatment - whereas creating the best overall environment for all private investment would best foster growth and jobs. Huge losses in Washington's equity stake in GM illustrate that government-financed jobs are too expensive. Fiascos like Solyndra and other ill-fated energy projects prove yet again that businesses, not bureaucrats, have the fine-grain information and financial acumen to make the right bets: investments that create new products, advance established industries and multiply jobs, not merely pay politicians' debts to campaign supporters.

Many Americans struggling through the current recession would be happy to endorse the "Buy America" provision in the recently passed stimulus bill. Clothing made in China, cars produced in Japan and store shelves stocked with imports provoke disgruntled complaints about lower-paid foreign workers. But our protective instincts are largely misguided. This country is too closely tied to the global economy to dig itself out of the current trouble without helping our trading partners recover too. Still, only 35 percent of the public thinks trade agreements have been good for the country, a recent survey shows.