January 15, 2012
Reporters always complain about space constraints. Therefore it is difficult to understand why they feel the need to add the word “free” when reporting on trade deals, as the Post did in a piece talking about the possible implications for trade of President Obama’s plans for restructuring the Commerce Department.
Of course the deals in question (recent pacts with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama) were not free trade agreements, since they increased barriers in some areas, most obviously intellectual property rights. They were just called “free trade: agreements by proponents, presumably because they think this will make them politically salable.
It would have been helpful to include the views of a critic of U.S. trade policy in this piece. If the restructuring makes the government less effective in promoting a trade agenda that they consider harmful, a restructuring may be viewed positively.
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