Why It’s Enough to Make You Choke on a Pretzel

At his press conference in Chicago President Bush made the following comments,

I also believe strongly that we’ve got to open up markets to goods produced here in Illinois, goods and services. One way to make sure this economy of ours grows is to reject protectionism and be confident in our capacity to trade. I’m getting ready to go to the G8, and one of the topics there is going to be the Doha Round of the WTO, which basically — the commitment is that a world that trades freely is a world in which people are going to be able to find work here at home, and it means we have better capacity to be able to help lift nations out of poverty.

This coming from the President who, in a cheap political ploy, enacted steel tariffs. The same President that put tariffs on Vietnamese shrimp. This is the same President has done nothing about the Foreign Sales Corporation Tax (which The WTO considers a defacto subsidy). Basically, Bush has one of the worst track records on free trade for the last 30 to 40 years.

FILED UNDER: Economics and Business, , , , , , ,
Steve Verdon
About Steve Verdon
Steve has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and attended graduate school at The George Washington University, leaving school shortly before staring work on his dissertation when his first child was born. He works in the energy industry and prior to that worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Division of Price Index and Number Research. He joined the staff at OTB in November 2004.

Comments

  1. floyd says:

    steve; i was shocked when i read the nonsense bush was spewing above! thank you for the reassuring words of comment that followed.i thought bush was a treasonous sellout to the WTO, but you’re saying that there’s hope yet. eventhough there’s not; it still sounds good.keep up the good work!

  2. Fersboo says:

    I was preparing 1120-FSC returns for major clients in 1999 and 2000. We knew then that the FSC was heading out to pasture due to the stink that the WTO was putting up. I am pretty sure that the arguments by the US to the WTO in favor of the FSC were made well before George W. was elected the 43rd POTUS.

  3. don surber says:

    Good catch!

  4. Ugh says:

    This is the same President has done nothing about the Foreign Sales Corporation Tax (which The WTO considers a defacto subsidy).

    I’m fairly certain that the FSC was repealed, including the grandfathering. Not that that excuses Bush’s other non-sense.

  5. jpe says:

    I am pretty sure that the arguments by the US to the WTO in favor of the FSC were made well before George W. was elected the 43rd POTUS.

    The final ruling from the WTO didn’t come through until 2001.

  6. Fersboo says:

    The final ruling from the WTO didn�t come through until 2001.

    Are we talking past each other, or are you trying to be cute? I understand that the final ruling was issued after George W was sworn in as President, but my contention is that the prior administration was the party to the case in the WTO. Was the WTO supposed to re-try the entire case because we elected a new President? Would the WTO not have outlawed the FSC if AlGore was elected? A reasonable person would answer no to both of those questions.

  7. Christopher says:

    Calm down, Steve! Jeeez. Have a heart attack or something!

    You’re either a liberal who wants to get in his punches, or a moronic conservative that doesn’t understand politics.

    Which is it?

  8. Steve Verdon says:

    Okay, explain the brilliant politics behind this Christopher? Everybody seems to be on the same page that the steel tariffs actually cost more jobs than it saved and did nothing to help gain support for Bush in Pennsylvania. So explain the brilliance here for us morons.