Word: tradings
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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While supporters of this position often resort to hyperbole and jingoistic rhetoric, their case has an element of truth. The U.S. cannot always stick to the rules of free trade when other nations do not. At times, it may be advisable to impose temporary protectionist measures as a bargaining chip...
...that weapon should be used sparingly. Protectionism encourages U.S. companies to remain inefficient and drives up prices to consumers. The flap about fair trade obscures an inescapable fact: the fault for our industrial woes lies not with our trading partners but in ourselves. If every trade barrier on earth magically disappeared, the U.S. deficit would probably decline no more than 20%. The primary responsibility for the trade deficit rests both with a profligate Government whose tax and spending policies have encouraged overconsumption and with much of U.S. industry, which grew fat and complacent during its halcyon days in the 1950s...
...Rebuild America to provide Government grants for regional economic development. Like Bush, Dukakis glosses over the issue of where the money would come from. He rails against big mergers as anticompetitive, chiding former Attorney General Edwin Meese for not knowing the "difference between antitrust and antifreeze." Yet many trade experts believe that a relaxation of antitrust rules is necessary to allow U.S. companies to combine forces against foreign competition. Dukakis favors tougher enforcement of safety and environmental regulations, along with compulsory health insurance for workers that would be funded by companies. These are all worthwhile goals, but they will impose...
...candidates, Dukakis veers closer to being protectionist. He would grant ailing industries temporary relief if they use the breathing space to make necessary adjustments, including investments in plant, equipment and worker retraining. Counters Bush, who bills himself as a defender of free trade: "To some, competitiveness means protectionism and pointing the finger at our trading partners without trying to improve quality and productivity at home. To me, that is not competitiveness. Instead, that is weakness and defeatism." But Reagan has agreed to trade restrictions on everything from motorcycles to semiconductors, and a President Bush would probably be just as pragmatic...
Neither candidate's program will do much to curb the trade deficit. The problem cannot be resolved quickly, but several strategies could get the country moving in the right direction...