The Washington Post | By Paul Blustein | March 10, 2004
U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick, said yesterday that the United States soon may file its first global trade case against China and plans to aggressively pursue open markets in India as well.
China and India are two of the countries at the center of the controversy over job losses in the United States.
China must lower its trade barriers, Zoellick told a Senate Finance Committee hearing, "if support in the United States for an open market with China is to be sustained." The potential U.S. case at the World Trade Organization involves taxes that Beijing levies on foreign-made semiconductors.
As for India, he said, its once-closed economy has become substantially more open in recent years. But asserting that India has been "one of the more difficult players" in the current round of WTO negotiations aimed at lowering global trade barriers, he said he has admonished the Indian government that it must be more forthcoming in trade talks.
The rhetoric reflected the administration's desire to show that it is taking a tough line on opening overseas markets to help dampen anti-trade sentiment among the public amid growing anxiety over the "outsourcing" of jobs to low-wage countries.
Yesterday's hearing was expected by trade experts and some administration officials to turn into a political showdown between Zoellick and committee Democrats over the trade issue. But although outsourcing was raised by senators from both parties at the outset of the hearing, the panel's Democrats took a cordial stance toward Zoellick, repeatedly praising him for his efforts to open markets overseas.The Washington Post:
