Pelosi Out Of Step With Europe On Free Trade
With is somewhat surprising, actually:
When the Nancy Pelosi world tour came to Europe’s capital Wednesday, you might have anticipated a certain kinship between European elites and the new Democratic majority in the U.S. congress. That certainly wasn’t the case on the subject of free trade. In their meeting, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso went out of his way to voice optimism about the struggling Doha round of trade talks, expressing hope for an “ambitious and balanced [deal] this year” and speaking of the West’s “responsibility to keep global markets open.” Ms. Pelosi responded: “I hear what you are saying”—and then said pretty much the opposite.
She gestured toward one of her traveling buddies, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a South Dakota Democrat, and said: “Our Members from our farm states have some very serious interests in what is happening in the Doha round.” Then she stuck in the knife, suggesting that White House trade negotiator Susan Schwab needed to be “a representative of the American people and not just American business.” Asked directly whether Congress might extend President Bush’s fast-track authority, Ms. Pelosi offered scant comfort to pro-trade forces: “What it would take is for the American people to believe there is fairness in it…. On the Doha round, we’d have to see a lot more than we’re seeing right now.”
“Fairness” is free trade and open markets. “Fairness” is not protectionism.
