Trade Barriers

THE debacle in Seattle last week was a defeat for President Clinton. It was also a delay, probably of one year, in forging a world consensus agenda for further lowering trade barriers. Any exultation or damnation that the street demonstrators prevailed, however, is dead wrong.What happened inside the World Trade Organization's conference hall is that the United States deadlocked with most other nations. President Clinton adopted some of the positions of organized labor and the environmental movement as the U.S. initiative.

WASHINGTON -- Fuji Photo Film, citing "glaring flaws" in an annual U.S. review of foreign trade barriers, yesterday renewed its call for a neutral fact-finding mechanism to resolve allegations that Japan's market for photographic film isn't open to foreign competition.A National Trade Estimate report released this week "provides a one-sided picture of market conditions in Japan," Fuji Film lawyer Bill Barringer said in a letter delivered to U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor.The NTE report is based entirely on the "uncritical acceptance of Kodak's allegations rather than any objective investigation of hotly disputed facts," Mr. Barringer said in his letter to Mr. Kantor.

Americans who live and work in the Chiapas highlands where Mexican Indian peasants have waged a bloody four-day insurrection say the same thing.They're not surprised that the Indians -- most of them poverty-ridden, landless, uneducated and marginally employed -- have resorted to violence as their only solution. But the Americans, mostly scholars, are astounded by the level of sophistication and wide scope of the uprising."What surprised me about this is that it happened all at once, all over the place," said Jan Rus, an anthropologist who works for a private foundation in San Cristobal de las Casas, one of six cities that the self-styled Zapatista National Liberation Army took over on New Year's Day."

Buenos Aires, Argentina.--Back in the 19th century, Argentina and Brazil built railroads with different gauge tracks -- just in case one or the other wanted to invade its neighbor.In 1977, Argentina held blackout drills against possible Chilean air raids.Bolivia has nursed a grudge toward Chile ever since it lost its access to the Pacific Ocean.But times are changing. After building up military and trade barriers out of ultra-nationalism, pride, resentment and fear, South American nations are entering an era of cooperation and friendship that has reverberations as far north as Washington.

The world will be a smaller and better place, starting as early as Jan. 1, because of the bipartisan wisdom of three presidents and the 103rd Congress in enacting the world trade accord expanding the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which began in 1947.With the globe's dramatic shrinkage for communications and travel, most trade barriers are anachronisms that impoverish the peoples of the world. The new GATT will not end such barriers -- it includes more than 2,000 pages of them, tortuously negotiated over eight years by 124 countries -- but greatly reduces them.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government released its list yesterday of countries erecting egregious trade barriers, singling out Japan as the worst offender. But senior officials said they were not, for the moment, contemplating any new sanctions against Tokyo.The Clinton administration has decided to give the Japanese more time to flesh out their sketchy offer, made earlier this week, to break the trade deadlock.This restrained response by the administration to a Japanese trade package deemed wholly insufficient is in striking contrast to some of the tough language of recent months.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group's pledge to create a giant free-trade area by 2020 was a clarion call for action. But nothing more. If this statement of intentions has the desired effect, it will act as a goad and measuring rod for the 18 member nations rimming the Pacific that now produce half the world's economic output.As such, it is a boost for President Clinton's free-trade policy, a crusade his administration picked up from Presidents Reagan and Bush. But it masks more disputes than it resolves.

BOGOR, Indonesia -- Leaders of 18 Pacific Rim countries formally committed themselves yesterday to dismantling all trade barriers within the next 25 years, but last-minute objections from two nations showed how fragile their alliance remains.After a 6-hour meeting at the opulent summer palace of Indonesian President Suharto, the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum pledged that their industrialized members will drop all barriers by the year 2010 and that developing countries will do so by 2020.

OTAY MESA, Calif. -- He was only dimly aware of it, but Tomas Estrada helped make trade history yesterday morning.The young truck driver from Tijuana, Mexico, wheeled up to the U.S. Customs dock here with a white truck full of 6,368 women's blouses, 1,657 pants, 3,910 shorts and 3,974 girls' headbands -- all assembled in Mexico and destined for Los Angeles.They were among the first cargoes of merchandise to enter the United States at reduced tariffs under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

WASHINGTON -- In a diplomatic scene more reminiscent of Cold War summits between two antagonistic superpowers, President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa stood side-by-side yesterday, glumly telling the world that they couldn't resolve their differences.The two nations know they need each other, the two delegations worked until 4 a.m. to try to iron things out and the two leaders professed respect and admiration for each other. But in the end, the United States and Japan failed.

Hillary Clinton fired her chief campaign strategist this week in an embarrassing tiff over free trade. She's against it, and he was helping Colombia promote a free trade treaty with America. The opposition of Mrs. Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and others to free trade is understandable during an economic downturn (and presidential campaign), but their protests miss the point. Free trade isn't the problem, the terms of the deals are. Nations that trade with the United States should be held to the same tough environmental rules that apply here, agree to much stronger protections for union workers and respect American copyright and patent rights.

THE PRESIDENT had to go to Capital Hill to lobby for it. Sugar and textile producers had to be given guarantees. All manner of pork had to be doled out. But late Wednesday, the administration pushed through the Central American Free Trade Agreement -- by two votes. This fight was about politics, not economics. Trade with the six nations covered by CAFTA is relatively small. Almost 80 percent of their exports to the United States already enter without tariffs. In mercantile terms -- by opening the region to U.S. exports -- America likely gains modestly.

WASHINGTON - Imports of expensive oil and cheap textiles helped drive the U.S. trade deficit to a record $61 billion in February, the government said yesterday, as America's ravenous appetite for foreign goods showed no signs of abating. Economists expressed concern about the trade deficit's surprise worsening from January's trade gap of $58.5 billion. As a result of the new numbers, many economists lowered their projections for first-quarter economic growth. The Commerce Department said the United States exported $100.

MIAMI - As tens of thousands marched in protest nearby, some with Steelworkers union flags and giant cardboard sunflowers, trade ministers from across the Americas approved yesterday a buffet-style plan to create the world's largest free-trade bloc. The Free Trade Area of the Americas would extend the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement to eliminate tariffs and trade barriers among all Western Hemisphere countries except Cuba. By late yesterday afternoon, 36 protesters had been arrested outside the temporary metal fencing that surrounded the Intercontinental Hotel, where trade ministers from 34 countries met. Two police officers were injured during protests.

In the world of economics, there are few topics that polarize us as does talk about the U.S. trade deficit. For the worrywarts among us, it isn't just that our nation spends (imports) more than it takes in (exports) that causes such angst - after all, that's standard operating procedure for many Americans. Their fear instead stems from the understanding that the trade shortfall has to be financed through foreign debt - or by selling our securities, properties and even our companies to overseas interests.

THE debacle in Seattle last week was a defeat for President Clinton. It was also a delay, probably of one year, in forging a world consensus agenda for further lowering trade barriers. Any exultation or damnation that the street demonstrators prevailed, however, is dead wrong.What happened inside the World Trade Organization's conference hall is that the United States deadlocked with most other nations. President Clinton adopted some of the positions of organized labor and the environmental movement as the U.S. initiative.

WASHINGTON -- Fuji Photo Film, citing "glaring flaws" in an annual U.S. review of foreign trade barriers, yesterday renewed its call for a neutral fact-finding mechanism to resolve allegations that Japan's market for photographic film isn't open to foreign competition.A National Trade Estimate report released this week "provides a one-sided picture of market conditions in Japan," Fuji Film lawyer Bill Barringer said in a letter delivered to U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor.The NTE report is based entirely on the "uncritical acceptance of Kodak's allegations rather than any objective investigation of hotly disputed facts," Mr. Barringer said in his letter to Mr. Kantor.

The world will be a smaller and better place, starting as early as Jan. 1, because of the bipartisan wisdom of three presidents and the 103rd Congress in enacting the world trade accord expanding the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which began in 1947.With the globe's dramatic shrinkage for communications and travel, most trade barriers are anachronisms that impoverish the peoples of the world. The new GATT will not end such barriers -- it includes more than 2,000 pages of them, tortuously negotiated over eight years by 124 countries -- but greatly reduces them.

Buenos Aires, Argentina.--Back in the 19th century, Argentina and Brazil built railroads with different gauge tracks -- just in case one or the other wanted to invade its neighbor.In 1977, Argentina held blackout drills against possible Chilean air raids.Bolivia has nursed a grudge toward Chile ever since it lost its access to the Pacific Ocean.But times are changing. After building up military and trade barriers out of ultra-nationalism, pride, resentment and fear, South American nations are entering an era of cooperation and friendship that has reverberations as far north as Washington.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group's pledge to create a giant free-trade area by 2020 was a clarion call for action. But nothing more. If this statement of intentions has the desired effect, it will act as a goad and measuring rod for the 18 member nations rimming the Pacific that now produce half the world's economic output.As such, it is a boost for President Clinton's free-trade policy, a crusade his administration picked up from Presidents Reagan and Bush. But it masks more disputes than it resolves.