The Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act

 WM Trade: The Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, September 10, 2020

There are three major concerns on renewal of the Act. The first is timing. Action on this legislation should wait for a more competent partner in the Executive Branch, as well as a more compassionate majority in the other chamber. Additionally, long-term trade policy changes should wait until the pandemic has run its course in the Midwest.

The second concern is the unilateral nature of this program. It treats member nations as beneficiaries rather than partners. Any deal that is as lopsided as this one is an imposition, not a deal among partners.

Ideally, the “beneficiaries” will create an organization to negotiate bilaterally with the United States. This will get them a better deal and will flex the muscle that our nation used to go from 13 competing colonies to a single nation and now the dominant power on the planet.

The third concern is the requirement to use American raw materials, specifically yarn. Such a subsidy ranks right up there with the Mohair subsidy long decried as shameless pork. Certainly members can ignore the campaign donations and political reach of this industry in order to play fairly with some of our nearest neighbors.

The positive side, of course, is the imposition of labor standards. Such matters are never truly effective unless demanded from within. In the United States, the most glaring civil rights violations were corrected by legislation, which gave license to those who were looking for a reason to behave as they would have without the social pressure to continue segregation. In many sectors, however, few hearts were changed. The unrest from this past summer demonstrates this.

Any reexamination of this Act should also look at abuses imposed on our trading partners from this shore, including currency trading and banking structures.