Free Trade In the Slow Lane

摘要

President Barack Obama's high-wire act on trade keeps getting harder to pull off.rnWhen he assumed office, Obama had to deal with two opposing factions on trade inside his own party. Centrist Democrats favored more pacts with other countries to lower tariffs further on imports and secure more opportunities abroad for U.S. exporters. Progressive Democrats condemned the rapid expansion of free trade as a pernicious way to cost U.S. workers their jobs and move more industries offshore.rnEarly in his term, Obama favored the centrists. The President made it clear that the financial crisis wouldrnonly worsen if free trade were in any way curtailed and trade wars broke out among the major economies.