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Article: Export more goods to produce balance: do free trade agreements really 'suck', as critic says?(straight talk)
- Article from:
- Tooling & Production
- Article date:
- June 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Nelson Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Free trade. It sucks!" That's how Lou Dobbs, CNN-TV personality, started his conversation with Susan Schwab, U.S. Trade Representative, a few weeks ago. He was questioning her on why the United States needs a free trade agreement with Colombia.
At the time of this writing, it was stalled in Congress, caught in a political squeeze play. Dobbs has been describing free trade agreements in those terms for years, pointing out that they are not "fait" and are costing Americans their jobs.
Schwab countered by claiming, "Free trade is the strongest part of our economy; 40 percent of our growth last year was attributable to increases in exports. You can throw ...