The Miami Herald
OP-ED: Balance trade with healthcare
Dec 16 -- If President-elect Barack Obama and his advisors want to promote bipartisanship to achieve economic progress at a time of crisis, we have a compelling suggestion for an area in which common ground is not only possible but necessary: trade. Take it from two people who, in normal times, are more likely to disagree than agree on large parts of trade policy.
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The institutions we lead have customarily been on different sides of the issue. The Peterson Institute for International Economics has long supported lowering trade barriers as crucial for prosperity here and around the globe. Oxfam America, while agreeing that U.S. markets should be as open as possible to exports from poor countries, has championed the argument that too many trade agreements have been struck at the expense of the poor in developing nations.
But these are anything but normal times. The worst economic crisis since the Depression and a historic presidential election open a potential new chapter and an opportunity for new thinking by both sides on this issue. The temptation in tough times is to circle the wagons and curtail trade openings. Polls show that public support for trade agreements has dropped sharply and that half the voters believed trade was a threat to the U.S. economy.
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