No change in GOP platform on trade
In adopting its new platform, the Republican Party reiterates a policy on trade promotion that is indistinguishable in my eyes from policies that the Bush Administration has been following. Although it speaks of exports of products and commodities, it gives equal prominence to sale of services and increased protections for intellectual property in foreign nations. It specifically calls for an "aggressive trade strategy" with respect to agriculture. This appears to be a continuation of the Bush Administration policy of favoring the traders of agricultural commodities (e.g., Cargill and ADM), for whom all trade is good, over growers, whose US subsidies will be bargained away. There is no recognition in the platform that globalization is different from trade, or that the US is suffering any ill effects at all from trade or globalization.
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