Obama’s Trade Stance Keeps Partners Guessing

(Edward Luce — Financial Times)

During last year’s US presidential campaign Austan Goolsbee, then Barack Obama’s economic adviser, got into hot water when he told a Canadian diplomat not to pay too much attention to his candidate’s tough rhetoric on the North America Free Trade Agreement.

Mr. Obama’s spin doctors quickly locked Mr. Goolsbee away in a dark room.

A year later Mr. Goolsbee, who is now at the Council of Economic Advisers, a group that answers to the president, is being vindicated. On Wednesday Mr. Obama issued a statement on trade that contained little of the language he deployed on the campaign trail.

The president’s statement also flagged up a new “plan of action” on three unconsummated trade agreements – with South Korea, Colombia and Panama – all of which are deeply unpopular with trade unions and all of which Mr. Obama opposed on the campaign trail. Wednesday’s statement followed a clear hint last month from Ron Kirk, Mr. Obama’s trade representative, that NAFTA would not formally be reopened for negotiation. […]

Trade watchers in Washington are divided between those who believe Mr. Obama is moving rapidly towards a Clintonite position in favour of new trade deals and those who believe the president is simply moving away from the protectionist wing of the Democratic party without developing a proactive new agenda on trade. Read more here.