The United States on Wednesday insisted it remains committed to free trade despite new quotas on some clothing from China, a move that angered Beijing and apparently led to the suspension of large U.S. farm commodity purchases by China.
Growing tensions between the two trading partners were evident a day after the United States unveiled the quotas, with a delegation of Chinese wheat buyers postponing a trip to the United States planned for late November or early December.
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“The administration is committed to free trade,” U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters traveling with Bush in London.
However, McCormack also said the United States was intent on “fully enforcing our trade laws,” an apparent reference to a U.S.-China trade arrangement that allows Washington to set “safeguards” against import surges of specific goods.
Of course. We support the free flow of goods, except for the goods we’re going to restrict. Glad we cleared that up.
Seriously, there’s got to be a number of administration officials who have about had it with bizarre marriage between electoral politics and economic theory in current U.S. trade policy.