Trade Pacts Run Amok

Blustein comments on the effectiveness of free trade agreements in deepening the friendships with US allies. He believes that theory of trade agreements is not working very well in the case of Colombia. Moreover, he discusses the larger lesson about the pitfalls of trade deals between individual countries, such as US-Colombia trade agreement. He considers the Colombia contretemps is the latest sign that the Bush administration's policy of avidly pursuing bilateral agreements is prone to serious backfiring. He stresses that there are good ways and bad ways to promote trade liberalization, and in the latter category are free trade agreements (FTAs)--or, as many trade specialists prefer to call them, PTAs, for "preferential trade agreements" among two or more countries. By far, the best way is on a multilateral basis--that is, in the World Trade Organization, which plays a crucial role in fostering global economic stability.