Free Trade, Open Immigration Dogmas Must Be Rethought

By Paul Craig Roberts

At a time when even the Wall Street Journal has disappeared into the maw of a huge media conglomerate, the New York Times remains an independent newspaper. But it doesn’t show any independence in reporting or in thought.

The Times issued a mea culpa for letting its reporter, Judith Miller, misinform readers about Iraq, thus helping the neoconservatives set the stage for their invasion. Now the Times’ reporting on Iran seems to be repeating the mistake. After the US commits another senseless act of naked aggression by bombing Iran, will the Times publish another mea culpa?

The Times editorials also serve as conduits for propaganda. On August 13, a Times editorial jumped on China for "irresponsible threats" that threaten free trade. The Times’ editorialists do not understand that the offshoring of American jobs, which the Times mistakenly thinks is free trade, is a far greater threat to America than a reminder from the Chinese, who are tired of US bullying, that China is America’s banker.

While US consumers dine on a steady diet of Chinese melamine, ethylene glycol, and lead, our Chinese trading partners have seen fit to ban imports of US pork.

The culprit is ractopamine, a growth additive fed to hogs in the US legally, but one that is banned in Taiwan and China.

As our Taiwanese trading partners rethink their aversion to ractopamine, Beijing continues to refuse shipments containing residues of the drug. Some believe that other trade issues are driving China's refusal to buy our pork. Among those are US rhetoric against lead laced toys and intellectual property rights that China continues to ignore.

Our advice to Beijing?

Get the lead out of Fair Trade. Among other things.

With passage of the farm bill, the House of Representatives forfeited the opportunity to do something this country hasn't tried since the New Deal of the 1930s: It could have taken steps to rejuvenate rural America.

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Senator Sam Brownback (R KS) is growing very concerned on China.  He said China has used their UN Security Council position to boost their economy.  A bit of an odd causation argument, but I'll not quibble right now.

“We have to use our economic force against China,” Brownback said. “We need to use trade tariffs against China and we need to get in their face on it.”

Brownback recognizes the economic problem enough to come out openly about it.  Representative Duncan Hunter (R CA) has the better cause and effect analysis - currency manipulation and border adjustable taxes.   Hunter has bills pending, or supports bills, to remedy these problems.

The basic facts are that China is one-third of the trade deficit.  And currency manipulation and border adjustable factors are major causes of our deficit with China and all Asian countries.  The border adjustable tax issue applies to virtually all our trading partners, disrupting trade across the board for us.

Hopefully Brownback can hone his arguments on the issue.  I'm not sure that saying we should "get in their face" about it helps, because this articulation is more open to wacko free traders shouting "protectionism." 

What we really want to do is neutralize the cheating.  But this is good movement, and a positive insertion into the presidential campaign.