This linkage poses a problem for the Bush administration, as it did for the Clinton administration. While drug trafficking and economic liberalization are not often associated in contemporary politics, the two are intertwined. While the major factors that influence drug trafficking are not related to trade liberalization, trade liberalization's impact has been largely ignored in the current debate. The same technological, economic and legal changes that have enhanced economic flows in the licit sectors of the global economy have enhanced these flows in the illicit sectors. Indeed, every step toward more open world markets creates some measure of collateral damage in the drug war.
Economic liberalization fuels the drug trade in at least four ways.
First, by lowering tariffs on imported goods and constraining national measures that discriminate against these goods, institutions such as the World Trade Organization increase global commerce. That is, of course, the point. Second, and more subtly, free trade agreements trigger infrastructure changes in the way licit trade is carried out, and these changes, in turn, help drug traffickers. Larger, more modern ports, lower airfares and more border-crossing stations all assist traffickers at the margin. And major innovations, like the use of standardized containers in international shipping, help even more.