COMMENT It is time to worry when both US Democratic presidential hopefuls say too much free trade is a bad thing. David Miliband, Britain’s foreign secretary and the voice of America’s closest international ally, is right to be troubled by the campaign trail shift towards protectionism. Barack Obama’s call for measures such as trade tariffs on China speaks to the fears of ordinary US voters for their jobs and prosperity. But they are the wrong policy prescription aimed at the wrong target.
To be clear: this debate is about much more than trade. In the US, Europe and Japan, workers who for the past 50 years have enjoyed the benefits of globalisation – bigger export markets – are starting to feel the downside. In America, popular discontent is rooted in economic insecurity, a widening gap between the rich and poor and a steady erosion of manufacturing jobs. It is true that, as capital moves to lower-cost nations, what is good for the global economy and corporations may not necessarily be good for its workers. But to cast globalisation as the bogeyman is a mistake.
