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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (502517)	12/2/2003 10:03:03 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Respond to of 769667

'Bush has not served the US economy' Moves to lift the illegal charges are long overdue Wednesday December 3, 2003 The Guardian Financial Times Editorial, December 2 "If the US rescinds its illegal steel tariffs this month, as now expected, it will be a case of better late than never. It will avert a ruinous trade war, benefit the US economy and reinforce the rule of international law" "Washington appears to have been swayed by European Union pressure and the threat of sanctions. The EU has been right to stand firm. Now it needs to show it is as tenacious at lowering long-standing trade barriers - including its own - as at fighting the erection of new ones. On that, its performance so far is less impressive." New York Times Editorial, December 2 "Presidents subordinate economic and trade policy to electoral pandering at their own peril. That should now be abundantly clear to President George Bush as he tries to decide what to do - and when to announce it - in response to a World Trade Organisation ruling that his 2002 steel tariffs are illegal." "Despite the opposition of its own economic team, the White House adopted the tariffs to protect America's ailing industry and woo steelworkers' votes in the key electoral battlegrounds of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The move, based on the specious claim that a sudden surge of imported steel was responsible for the domestic industry's woes, has harmed the overall economy and antagonised the nation's trading partners. Mr Bush should stop trying to fine-tune trade policy to enhance his electoral vote count and focus on the overall national interest. Both he and the country will be a lot better off when he does." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Editorial, December 2 "The American president seems finally to have made up his mind to lift steel tariffs. Mr Bush's decision is overdue. It would have been better if he had not introduced the tariffs last year in the first place. The president has not served the American economy well by setting up trade barriers. A change in US trade policy is none the less unlikely. The decision has only come about only because of pressure from trading partners and the threat of sanctions running into billions. Regrettably, American protectionism does not just hurt Europeans, Brazilians and many others, it has not benefited the US economy either." Washington Post Editorial, December 2 "Whether or not the president has made the right political calculation, the long-term damage to the international trading system has been done. The Bush administration, by imposing tariffs that it knew would probably be found to be illegal under WTO rules, has set a terrible example for other countries, which will now be tempted to misuse the long WTO adjudication process for their own ends. The administration has left US exporters more vulnerable to the political and electoral whims of other countries. Politicising trade decisions may or may not help Mr Bush get re-elected, but it is certain to harm US economic interests in the future." Wall Street Journal Editorial, December 2 "Failing to lift the tariffs would mean even more hardship for American steel users. The illusion is that a president can somehow mute domestic calls for protectionism by indulging in a bit of it, as if getting a flu shot. The reality is that unless an American president stands up for the broader national interest in free trade against narrow business and regional interests, no one else will.The lesson of the steel tariffs is that protectionism always backfires, so from now on Mr Bush might as well stick with and defend his free-trade principles." guardian.co.uk