APEC and America's Dangerous Free Trade Deception

WASHINGTON – On July 14 the National Center for APEC (NCAPEC) held a private get together just inches from the White House at the Willard Intercontinental hotel. Aside from the various businesses and trade groups in attendance, the private party also played host to United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk, and Representative Kevin Brady (R-Texas). Senator Max Baucus (Montana), after a long delay, arrived just in time to provide the keynote.

The room erupted into a congratulatory cacophony when the ambassador from the Republic of Korea was introduced and thanked for his hard work on forging ahead with the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. According to both Senator Baucus and Representative Brady, ratifying this treaty in Congress will be the most important thing our national legislature accomplishes in the next year.

In the avenue of international commerce, our political leadership has no goals. They have empty ideals and failed methodology. They ingratiate themselves with organizations like APEC in order to forward their own positions, but they provide nothing substantive and lasting to the people they represent.

Senator Max Baucus has used his position with APEC to bring a ministerial meeting to Big Sky, Montana. There, he claims, the APEC delegation can see the wonders of free trade at work in America’s heartland. Montana is the 44th most populous state in America. Its economy is still largely based on cereal farming and ranching. It is hardly a good snapshot of greater American economy. Spending a few days in a luxury hotel, while perhaps heading out to see a large successful corn growing, or visiting a dude ranch will not give any perspective on the greater American economy. It will help Senator Baucus brag to his political circle and his voting constituents back home.

In November 2011 the annual APEC summit is set to kick off in Honolulu, Hawaii. President Barack Obama will be in attendance, and while we can expect his speech to last longer and flow better than Senator Baucus’ it will likely carry just as little substance.

Proponents of “free trade” can see no faults in their logic. One individual said, “you can’t claim that trade hasn’t made life better can you?” Sure, trade has given us more things. We also wouldn’t have the trade-related unemployment, or the destabilizing deficits that have drained trillions of dollars out of what was once a vibrant and constantly growing American economy.

We know for a fact that America’s listless pursuit of “free trade at all costs” has resulted in lost jobs, reduced GDP, and weakened national security. The figures are undeniable. Yet our only solution as of yet is “more free trade”.

Senator Baucus talked about the need for “re-training” of our industrial workforce as we transition into a “21st century economy.” This is the same sort of industrial “re-training” that then-Senator John Kennedy spoke of 50 years ago during his presidential bid. Perhaps, after 50 years of failing, it is time to realize that some things just aren’t meant to be.

Washington, D.C. can easily look away from the broken homes and shattered dreams that accompany a paper mill moving to China. It can talk about economic metrics and projections of mutual growth. What it can’t do is deny the fact that its policies have failed the people who are supposed to matter the most.