Trading Troubles

AT the beginning of his first term, President Clinton pledged that the United States would compete in world markets, not retreat from them. At the beginning of his second term, America is doing both. It is competing in world markets better than it has for the past three decades, but it is also retreating from its traditional leadership on free markets in global trade negotiations.

The first ministerial meeting of the new World Trade Organization (WTO) ended in Singapore with a whimper. Despite an accord to reduce tariffs on information technology, the meeting was “uneventful.” A major reason: the lack of U.S. enthusiasm and the lack of fasttrack authority to negotiate trade deals.

About the Author

Henry R. Nau

Henry R. Nau is a professor emeritus at George Washington University and the author of Conservative Internationalism and The Myth of America’s Decline. He served on the National Security Council under President Reagan and is currently a distinguished scholar at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Washington, D.C.

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World Trade Organization

AT the beginning of his first term, President Clinton pledged that the United States would compete in world markets, not retreat from them. At the beginning of his second term, America is doing both. It is competing in world markets better than it has for the past three decades, but it is also retreating from its traditional leadership on free markets in global trade negotiations.

The first ministerial meeting of the new World Trade Organization (WTO) ended in Singapore with a whimper. Despite an accord to reduce tariffs on information technology, the meeting was “uneventful.” A major reason: the lack of U.S. enthusiasm and the lack of fasttrack authority to negotiate trade deals.

About the Author

Henry R. Nau

Henry R. Nau is a professor emeritus at George Washington University and the author of Conservative Internationalism and The Myth of America’s Decline. He served on the National Security Council under President Reagan and is currently a distinguished scholar at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Washington, D.C.