'Marching Backward on Trade'

Another ten-strike for wise man Bob Samuelson in today's WaPo entitled, "Marching Backward on Trade," about Congressional Dems' legerdemain in putting the Colombian Free Trade Agreement on hold. Indeed, Samuelson's strength is the ability to inject facts into debates often devoid of them. The trade debate is one where facts often fall by the wayside, but they are stubborn.

Samuelson points out that trade agreements open markets for US manufacturers. Under the Andean Trade Preference Act of 1991, all goods from Colombia already enter the US market duty-free. What this free trade agreement endeavors to do is to relax tariffs on US-made goods entering the Colombian market. Who on earth could oppose this?

Plenty of folks, as it turns out, all under the guise of protecting US jobs when in fact the opposite is true. The weak dollar has created a virtual sale on US-made goods in overseas markets. The export surge -- growing at twice the rate of imports -- has helped keep the economy afloat. "Without export-led growth," says Samuelson, "The economy may face a sluggish future."

Candidates who truly want to pander to the manufacturing vote ought to get behind every trade agreement they can. Opposing them only opens those same markets to our competitors.