Word: tradings
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Europe's euphoria over Barack Obama is fading fast. As Congress wrangles over the President's $819 billion stimulus package, a "buy American" clause has the European Union threatening legal action and retaliatory sanctions and opening up the prospect of an explosive trade war. (See pictures of the world reacting to Obama's Inauguration...
...provisions might protect U.S. jobs in the short term, but the E.U. says they would hobble global trade, a key motor for the world economy. John Bruton, the E.U. ambassador in Washington, has described the measures as "setting a dangerous precedent, and "neither the right or effective response to the situation." German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that "past world economic crises showed protectionism would be the completely wrong answer...
Similar measures to "buy American" have been adopted or considered in Argentina, China, Indonesia, Ecuador, India, Russia and Vietnam. Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organization, warned on Feb. 2 that any go-it-alone route would foster a spiral of retaliation. "Today we run the risk of sliding down a slippery slope of tit-for-tat measures. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,' " Lamy said...
...American" is highly popular among Congressional Democrats and trade unions. Obama supported it during his White House campaign, even distributing campaign buttons and flyers with a special emblem...
...Tuesday that he was prepared for a rethink. He did not promise to remove "buy American" but said he would take another look at the language in the bill. "I think we need to make sure that any provisions that are in there are not going to trigger a trade war," he told TV network ABC. And speaking to Fox News, he said, "I think it would be a mistake though, at a time when worldwide trade is declining, for U.S. to start sending a message that somehow we're just looking after ourselves...