True Confesssions From a Former Trade Representative

Robert Cassidy, the Clinton USTR has confessed before on his doubts about the promise of the WTO and the China PNTR, but now he as given more details during a talk at the Economic Policy Institute.

Speaking yesterday at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, Cassidy noted how the promises made when the Clinton administration was promoting China's accession to the WTO have been turned on their head. "Claims were made that U.S. exports of goods to China would increase substantially," he recalled, "creating jobs in the higher-paying export sector." Instead, American manufacturers shuttered factories here and opened them in China, while China's undervaluation of its currency guaranteed that U.S. products would not be sold there. Indeed, Cassidy added, U.S. exports to China "consist primarily of raw materials" -- hardly the product of superior U.S. technology and production.

So, while selling this debacle to the American people, it sounds like they bought their own sales pitch.

One must praise Robert Cassidy for speaking up on the opposite result of what they believed....although it truly reminds me
of the continually never ending problem of ramrodding through policy, treaties, legislation without truly analyzing all of the ramifications.

Subject Meta: 

Forum Categories: