Lew Rockwell, a libertarian political commentator, is voicing opposition to the Bush administration's free trade agreement with Colombia, but not for the same reasons Democrats like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton oppose the pact.
President Bush is sending the Colombia trade agreement to Congress, a move that will force a congressional vote within 90 days. "It's time to level the playing field for American exporters," Bush said -- adding that approving the deal before the end of the year is "necessary for national security reasons" and will improve the economy. Lew Rockwell is president of the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. He says free trade is good for economic development and establishing peace among nations, but that the Colombian agreement being pushed by President Bush is a form of "managed trade." He argues that the legislation is full of special deals for big companies, yet does not make it easier for the small-business person to engage in international trade. "These sorts of trade agreements -- we've had it with NAFTA and CAFTA and others -- are not actually free trade," Rockwell explains. "What they do is ... give special benefits, special deals to big companies ... that are friendly to the administration in power." The political pundit is convinced that even those siding with Bush on the legislation really have no idea what all the ramifications might be. "Nobody looks through these things -- they're many hundreds of pages long," he contends. "Certainly no congressman or senator ever looks through them. They just take the advice of the lobbyists who were giving them the thumbs-up or the thumbs-down as they walk in the House or the Senate chamber. "I used to work on Capitol Hill before going straight, so I know how these things operate -- and none of these guys read anything," he concludes. "So I'm sure there's bad stuff in that bill." Rockwell adds that greater foreign markets for American products and better deals for Americans on foreign products are both desirable -- especially if they hurt the UAW or AFL-CIO.
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