Trade politics haven’t traditionally lined up with Democrats on one side and Republicans on the other. In the past, regional and business interests lined up to create a bi-partisan consensus on trade. But in this presidential election year, that’s much less the case. While there are still some Democrats who support the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, they are harder to find. The downturn in the economy has some Republicans also seeming less enthusiastic about this deal.
It may be that past free trade deals were the easier ones to find agreement on. It may also be that the consequences of those free trade deals are now clear. Trade creates winners and losers; and, unfortunately, it isn’t hard to find the losers among the outsourced, downsized, or underemployed workers in key battleground states.
