I still haven’t responded to the good (and tough) comments I got on my free-trade postings last week. To be clear, I wasn’t coming out with a ringing endorsement of CAFTA, which seems to be riddled with problems, but rather wondering why center-left Democrats were silent in defense of free trade principles. I still think that writing in labor, environment and governance standards is either unwitting (?) sabotage or else an attempt to achieve other ends under the guise of trade. By the same token, I’m equally opposed to writing in excessive intellectual property protection, which means enforcement of narrow pecuniary interests rather than an intermingling of the economies involved.
Fortunately, Tyler Cowen offers a reasonable consideration of the trade agreement, including the observation that the treaty doesn’t represent a large net move toward free trade. His conclusion: "This is probably a treaty we should pass, but it is not a treaty we should be proud of."
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