by William Neikirk
Americans have grown more skeptical about the benefits of foreign trade, a new survey by the Pew Research Center suggested today.
The center, as part of a project on global attitudes, said 59 percent of Americans responded that trade was good for the economy, compared with 78 percent five years ago.
In recent years, controversial trade agreements have caused a big political reaction in America, prompting many free-traders to wring their hands and fret about protectionism.
But the survey showed that increasingly more Americans do not see as much benefit from free trade as they once did--and it has turned into a bigger political issue. Older Americans tended to question free trade more than young people, and Democrats were more skeptical than Republicans.
"Democratic attitudes toward trade have soured tremendously over the past five years," the center said. In 2002, 77 percent of Democrats believed trade had a positive economic impact. Now, that percent has fallen to 53 percent.
In Canada, support for free trade fell only slightly as it did in most of Latin America and Western Europe.
The report also showed declining support for multinational corporations around the world. In the U.S., 45 percent of Americans said multinational companies have a good impact on the economy, 5 percent less than five years ago. Similar declines were reported in major industrial countries. But in many developing nations, support for multinational companies fell..
When asked about capitalism (or "free markets), 70 percent of Americans said people are better off with free markets. But this was a small decline from the 72 percent support in 2002.
In Bangladesh, support for capitalism soared from 32 percent five years ago to 81 percent today. In China, support for free markets topped the sentiment in the U.S., rising to 75 percent from 70 percent five years ago.
The Chinese, it must be pointed out, in particular love free markets in the U.S. and Europe that have been open to their goods--although the survey didn't account for recent controversies involving tainted food and toys shipped to the U.S. from China.
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Comments
So, the honeymoon is over and people are finally figuring out they've been sold up the river. It was all about corporate greed and those who thought it would create more jobs (I'm talking to you Rep. Bean/CAFTA) are finding that just the opposite is true. But, hey, at least stocks are up.
Posted by: DD | October 4, 2007 4:00 PM
Gee whiz, and just when our $ has gone so far into the crapper that we might be able to export something.
Posted by: C.Morris | October 4, 2007 4:58 PM
This was the first topic on Washington Journal today. One of the strongest reasons for opposition was food and product safety. A lot of people also said they'd pay more for something that will last. They miss the quality of American Made Goods.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | October 4, 2007 5:00 PM
Food and product safety, yeah those are concerns.
But how about the loss of American Jobs?
How about stagnant American wages?
How about the foriegn workers who who replaced us getting subsistance wages and often working in dangerous conditions?
How about the environmental devastation that often occurs in these offshore sites?
Those are also concerns.
Thank you Bill Clinton, often touted by bloggers in the Swamp as a truly great president.
Oh, and Golden Boy Barak Obama is on record as being pro NAFTA and "free" trade.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 4, 2007 6:54 PM
How much of the soured attitudes toward free trade have been caused by such blundering disasters as membership in NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO? The article doesn't explicitly answer this, and the failure to ask this question is something for which the pollsters should be faulted.
These agreements have sucked the life out of our ability to shore up our own economy. We can't even loan money to develop the steel industry because those agreements (and the WTO in particular) say that such "subsidies" constitute unfair trade for which the U.S. could face sanctions. As a result, we have to import foreign steel - mostly from Europe, instead of making it ourselves and creating jobs for our own workers in the process. With such stupid trade agreements, I can understand why people are not fond of “free trade” as it is.
Posted by: John W. | October 4, 2007 6:55 PM
Billy writes the headline "Sours".
See the survey - Pew Research says "Mixed Review"
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=299
Posted by: Terry | October 4, 2007 10:24 PM
Anonymous,
NAFTA was passed by a Republic Party majority Congress.
Posted by: BC | October 5, 2007 11:08 AM
BC,
GEt your facts straight. Prsident Clinton signed NAFTA on September 14, 1993. Who controlled Congress?
http://www.multied.com/Documents/Clinton/SigningNaFTA.html
Posted by: Terry | October 5, 2007 2:40 PM