WITA had a recent event on the trade policy differences between an Obama and a McCain administration. Lael Brainard represented the Obama campaign and Phil Levy represented the McCain campaign. The event was not available online as far as I could tell, but a couple news organizations covered it. Here's what I was able to piece together from their reports:
-- Obama would put pressure on China and other countries that violate trade rules and put less emphasis on cutting new trade deals ... "We have to see a material shift in resources within USTR (the U.S. Trade Representative's office)" toward more trade enforcement, said Brainard.
-- Levy questioned whether the number of WTO cases filed each year was the best way to measure enforcement.
-- McCain's top trade priorities would be to conclude the long-running round of world talks, win approval of free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama and work in a bipartisan fashion to restore support for trade in Congress and the American public.
-- Brainard criticized the Bush administration for repeatedly failing to label China as a currency manipulator.
-- Levy agreed that China's currency is undervalued and a long-term problem for the United States. But given the global financial crisis it is "a bit of an odd time time to be punishing the Chinese for sending capital our way," he said. "I think there's room for negotiation there. I think what Sen. McCain would do is try to take action that would be effective for the American people. Starting a trade war with China probably doesn't meet that bill," Levy said.
-- Obama is against scheduling a congressional vote after next month's election on a free-trade agreement with Colombia.
-- a McCain administration would back continuing negotiations in the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization and bilateral trade deals. As part of a WTO deal, ''we need a president willing to push changes to expensive agricultural subsidies, subsidies we can't afford.'
-- McCain also would seek to expand aid to workers who lose their jobs because of overseas competition, and move to subsidize the salaries of older workers forced to take lower-paying replacement jobs.
-- Brainard said that Obama would ''update'' the North American Free Trade Agreement to include tougher labor and environment provisions.
-- The Bush administration began negotiations this year for separate treaties with India and China that would govern how foreign investors are treated. While those efforts garnered strong support from U.S. businesses, both Brainard and Levy said a new administration would re-evaluate them. Brainard said Obama is skeptical of initiatives by the Bush administration to negotiate investment treaties with China and India.
After writing this, I saw that Ben Muse did a post of his own on this. He also linked to this article about possible U.S. Trade Representatives in an Obama or McCain administration: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20081005/pl_cq_politics/politics2971172_5 Muse's summary:
McCain might keep Susan Schwab, or turn to Grant Aldonas or Jim Kolbe.
Obama might turn to Cal Dooley, Daniel Tarullo, or Lael Brainard.
