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In an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal, President
Bush stated his support for expanded trade as a cure for what ails the country.
In his opinion, US exporters stand to gain through free trade agreements still
pending with Columbia, Panama, and South Korea.
With growth of the gross domestic product slowing, it seems
that past free trade agreements may not have been panacea to US
manufacturing as advertised; so if a lot is not too good, will a little more be any better?
Answer; Yes. In Panama,
Columbia, and South Korea.
Visiting a manufacturing plant in California yesterday Mr. Bush told laborers,
"Free trade means good-paying jobs for Americans, Congress needs to pass
these agreements for the sake of economic vitality."
But the President threatened to veto a bill that would have
helped workers who lost their jobs when Congress seemed intent on including
service workers in the plan. It seems that when workers lose their jobs,
service workers are impacted by the fact that there are fewer people able to
pay the cost of the service they provide. The President stated that he
wanted to confine the program to those who actually lose their jobs as a result
of trade deals. The Administration may use a shorter yard stick for
jobs than they do for trade.
Congress and the President could debate that one for a long
time.
In the meantime, more pharmaceutical companies are accessing
drugs and their ingredients, off shore, from India,
with a growing move toward China
where leukemia patients were recently poisoned by a contaminated chemo
treatment.
Based on the news in WSJ today, when it comes to free trade,
what doesn’t kill you will hopefully cure you. But at the very least, it may just
take away your job.
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