By Brian Carnell

Wednesday, March 6, 2002

The New Republic's Franklin Foer wrote an article on a downright bizarre sidebar in the war on terrorism. In return for its support of the United States, Pakistan asked George W. Bush to lower textile tariffs and raise quotas that have long been directed at Pakistani exports. The White House has refused, allowing itself to be held hostage by the textile lobby in the United States.

As Foer recounts, House Republicans wanted to renew the Trade Promotion Authority without any help from Democrats. To achieve that, given the slim Republican majority in the House, the White House had to offer the moon to Republican holdouts who are unfriendly to free trade.

One of those holdouts was North Carolina's Robin Hayes whose district depends heavily on textiles for jobs. To obtain Hayes' vote, the administration agreed to toe the line on Pakistani textile imports. Combined with other problems related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Foer reports that total textile imports from Pakistan have fallen by 40 percent costing as many as 48,000 jobs in Pakistan. And, as Foer puts it, "That's 48,000 more Pakistanis with nothing to do but take to the streets, cheer on Osama bin Laden, and burn down the American flag."

The final outrage? Almost all textile quotas will be phased out in 2005 anyway. Foer writes,

In other words, the textile lobby has spent millions of dollars and interfered with wartime foreign policy to prolong a protectionist regime that's already slated for imminent extinction. Who are the grave robbers here?

Beyond the political machinations that led to this odd outcome, it is obscene that an administration which so publicly calls for free trade works behind the scenes to block free trade with one of the poorest countries of the world. Like previous Republican administrations, Bush is willing to talk the talk but not walk the walk on free trade, condemning many Pakistanis to poverty for no other reason that they are too competitive for the American textile industry.

Like the Democrats, Bush trusts the government, not the people.

Source:

Fabric Softener: The textile lobby v. the war on terrorism. Franklin Foer, The New Republic, March 4, 2002.

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