Shaky Coalition: 'Free-Trade' Backers Express Rising Doubt As U.S. Deficits Persist --- Once-Formidable Lobby Is A Shambles, Though Tide Of Protectionism May Recede --- Moderating Voice of Farmers
WASHINGTON -- Four years ago, Consumers for World Trade, the capital's most fervent free-trade organization, gave its first annual award to Rep. Sam Gibbons, citing his work for "the cause of open and cooperative world trade."</br></br>Today, Rep. Gibbons is sponsoring legislation to restrict lumber and petroleum imports and pressuring the president to retaliate against "unfair" foreign trade practices. "I have refined my views," the Florida Democrat says of his "get tough" approach. "I believe in an open, competitive marketplace, but a free market isn't a subsidized market."</br></br>The Tampa lawmaker isn't the only longtime free-trader to qualify his stance because of today's mounting trade problem. First labor leaders, then farmers and businessmen, and now even some economists are starting to question whether the U.S. can continue its historical open-market policies. Although there are hints that the current protectionist storm may be subsiding, many analysts have begun to wonder whether the longstanding free-trade coalition, once a formidable intellectual and lobbying force, can ever be repaired.</br></br>"It's gone," declares Robert Strauss, the longtime Democratic politician who was the Carter administration's chief trade negotiator. Rep. William Frenzel, one of the last remaining true free-traders in Congress, agrees. "The free-trade coalition has crumbled," the Minnesota Republican asserts. "Things have changed a lot in the United States. A $150 billion trade deficit grows a lot of protectionists."</br></br>Even if the coalition is merely shaky, the change has important implications for the U.S. and for the world. "There isn't an industry out there that isn't affected by other countries' barriers," says Sen. Dan Quayle, an Indiana Republican. "There no longer is a free-trade lobby. It just disappeared. That's one of the biggest changes in politics."