CAFTA, China and the Carolinas

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On June 12, 1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Trade Agreements, which allowed Secretary of State Cordell Hull to begin rolling back the devastating Hawley-Smoot tariffs by negotiating what we might now call free trade agreements.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is in the New Deal tradition too many Democrats have abandoned.

Poor countries invariably have high tariffs against imports -- that is a big reason they're poor. Tariffs in Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic average 38.4 percent, according to the World Trade Organization. U.S. tariffs, by contrast, average 3.7 percent, and 37.3 percent of our imports are duty-free.

Under CAFTA, Central American countries would have to greatly reduce their super-high tariffs against U.S. exports. But the only places there is much room to cut U.S. tariffs are: (1) textiles and apparel, where tariffs average 8.7 percent, and (2) sugar, where Agriculture Department import rationing keeps the U.S. price twice as high as the world norm.

As The Washington Post explained, "Sugar growers and refiners gave $2.4 million in contributions to Democratic and Republican candidates in the 2003-04 election cycle, more than any other agricultural group." But the unmentioned elephant stomping around the Capitol is Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), because keeping the indefensible sugar quotas creates a lucrative market for corn syrup.

Opposition to CAFTA from the sugar quota gang was predictable. The reaction of textile and apparel industries to CAFTA has been far more interesting.

The Wall Street Journal wrote that CAFTA "has run into strong opposition. Not all U.S. textile producers are thrilled about the deal; they fear competing against low-cost labor abroad."

The Washington Times simultaneously ran a letter from textile producers thrilled about CAFTA. It was co-signed by Cass Johnston, National Council of Textile Organizations president, and Kevin Burke, American Apparel & Footwear Association president. They noted that "11 major textile and apparel trade associations have voted to support the agreement."

The reason would be obvious if reporters could spot the difference between fabric and clothing. One difference is the U.S. runs a trade surplus in fabric -- exports topped imports by $1.2 billion last year. Newspapers described the recent spat with China as a "textile" dispute. But it was almost entirely about helping U.S. apparel companies stuck with contracts or plants to make bras and robes in some other foreign countries, not China. The United States is home to the four biggest apparel companies in the world. But the low end of that business (sewing collars on T-shirts) has virtually disappeared in all advanced economies.

The United States will import nearly all clothing regardless of CAFTA or China. Sweatshops aren't coming back. But companies sewing clothing in Bangladesh can't afford the time and shipping expense of buying U.S. fabric. And clothing companies in Central America much prefer to buy materials from the United States rather than distant Pakistan. CAFTA countries spent $2.4 billion on U.S. textiles last year.